Drifting
by AlphaDelta1001
Summary: Naruto is many things; troublesome, wild, unpredictable, adventurous, untamable, unique. But there's a benefit to being wild and unpredictable; no one has the faintest idea what you're going to do next. NarutoHarem
1. Prologue

**Author's Note:** Yo, I know some of you guys are waiting patiently on my other stories to be updated. No need to fret, I'm still working on them. It's just that I have recently been struck with inspiration and am giving another idea a swing. I was inspired to write this story after watching Naruto Shippuden episodes 166 (Confession) and episode 178 (Iruka's Decision). There's a couple more in there, I just need to find them again.

Anyway, hope you all enjoy this one.

* * *

**NARUTO**

**Drifting**

_Prologue_

_**Eight years after Kyuubi attack…**_

_It was a nice, warm and sunny day out in Konoha, and there was not a cloud in the sky. It was really the perfect day to be outside, especially for all the children cooped up at home. The younger groups were out on the playgrounds, kicking ball, playing tag, hide-and-seek, and all manner of fun that they would normally do out on a day like this. It was literally a cauldron of excitement brewing in the parks._

"_Hey, Sakura! Check this out!" a blonde haired girl in an orange shirt with her hair tied up in a high knot exclaimed as she ran up to her friend, who was picking flowers in the park's clearing. The addressed youngster looked up to see Ino stop and pose in front of her. "What do you think?"_

_Spotting the large purple flower slipped into her companion's hair, Sakura smiled and leapt to her feet in excitement. "Wow, Ino! Where'd you get that?"_

"_From the woods over there," Ino exclaimed while pointing. She brushed her hair back in an attempt to look more mature. "Isn't it pretty?"_

"_Yeah! It is!"_

While the two compared collections with one another from the flora they had already managed to pick, they suddenly picked-up on a big commotion somewhere nearby and looked up to see all of the kids on the playground suddenly run off. Boys and girls of all ages scrambled over the equipment en masse before disappearing across the plain, running out of the park or to their parents.

_Things quickly went from excited to deathly quiet after that, something that puzzled both girls out on grass since the sight of the children leaving all at once made it seem like they were running from something scary. Hell, they pretty much left everything that they had with them behind; balls, toys and stuff in the sand box._

"_Hey, what's going on?" Sakura asked, looking around worryingly._

_After a few seconds of scratching heads, the two friends then saw a boy with blonde hair appear on the empty playground. Wearing a slightly grubby white shirt with shorts, he stared after the kids that had run off in confusion before spotting Sakura and Ino. He then ran over to them, the two girls backing away a bit until he stopped in front of them and smiled._

"_Hey, can I play with you guys?" the newcomer asked with a grin._

_Sakura and Ino looked unsure at each other at first. But after a few seconds of deliberation, they both glanced back at the stranger and smiled. Looking him over there didn't appear to be anything scary about this boy. He seemed pretty nice to them, so why did everybody else run off? This question however went on unanswered and the two youngsters approached the smiling boy with open arms and smiles of their own._

"_Sure," Sakura chirped, stepping towards the stranger and holding out the flowers she was still holding. "We're trying to find as many of these as we can."_

_Ino also walked up to him and showed off the piece in her hair with a big grin. "The one who finds the most interesting ones wins."_

_Naruto laughed a little at their activity and went on to inspect the bunch the pink haired girl was holding out to him. "Hunting for flowers? That's a silly game."_

_The girl clutching the collection of daisies and poppies puffed her cheeks out indignantly, "No it's not!"_

_Giggling excitedly, the blonde held up a fist and grinned at them, "If it's a competition then I bet I can find the best!"_

"_Uh-uh," Ino replied immediately while pointing at her chest. "I bet __**I**__ can find the best before __**you**__ can! My family owns a flower shop and knows everything about plant life, so I __**know**__ what the best flowers are."_

"_Alright then," Naruto spoke up confidently while pointing at both of them, "Whoever finds the best flower in the next five minutes wins!"_

"_**Okay!"**_ _both girls said in unison. On their count, the trio then broke away and began roaming the playground for the eye-catching plants they could find. They had to search high and low if they wanted the best, with Sakura immediately going to a cherry blossom tree and Ino retreating to the base of an oak for some wild blue bells. Even Naruto had his share of fun picking daisies from the side of the sandpit._

_Unfortunately, before their little challenge could gain any real traction Sakura, who was busy pulling flowers from her tree, was interrupted by the sound of footsteps approaching her from behind, which had her look over her shoulder. There she saw her mother, a tall woman with shoulder-length golden blonde hair, green eyes and wearing white robes smiling down at her. She took the girl gently by the hand and began leading her away from the park. "Come on sweetie. Your father wants us home now."_

"_B-But wait mom, I haven't finished playing with my friends yet," the pink haired girl exclaimed in protest, looking across the park to see Naruto staring after her with a handful of grass and chrysanthemums. He also looked across to see Ino being led off by her father as well, both girls looking back towards him in confusion._

_Mebuki smiled sweetly at her daughter. "You can spend time with them tomorrow, okay?" She looked back across at the youngster standing by the playground. "I'm sure he'll be here waiting for you."_

"_Umm… o-okay …" Sakura replied, allowing herself to be led away. When she looked back at the confused boy she had just met she waved at him, which he returned after a moment of pause. He didn't seem to know what was going on or why she was being led away so suddenly, but after a few seconds of watching the girls leave with their parents he looked away, appearing a little hurt. The pink haired girl looked back with worry. 'H-He didn't even tell me his name.'_

_To Naruto, it was a familiar sight seeing kids running away from him or being dragged away by their parents, but for whatever reason he had no idea why. Was he sick? Was he scary? Was he hideous? Was he a bad person? To a kid only eight years old and incredibly impressionable it certainly seemed that way. What else was he supposed to think?_

_He'd heard people's whispers, seen their stares and seen how the villagers acted around him. They were always pushing him away, ignoring him or sneering at his face._

_These were mostly the parents and the adults. The children naturally followed what their parents were doing and ran away from him… most of the time. Those youngsters who were the exception, the ones that didn't know him, were always nice to him the first time around. But then when he went to see them again to play they either ran away, hid or ignored him._

_Perhaps the two nice girls he met today would end up like that tomorrow. Perhaps they wouldn't. He wasn't sure, but it was still a very upsetting thought._

_Upon seeing a couple more potential friends get dragged away from him Naruto looked down at the ground in disappointment. He dropped the flowers he was carrying and shoved his hands into his pockets dismissively, kicking at the earth before following the footpath out of the park._

_Since there was nobody here anymore what point was there in hanging around?_

OOO

_**A couple years later…**_

"_Quit it!"_

"_Huh? Who the hell are you?" a young boy wearing a blue jumper and a cap asked as he looked over his shoulder at the short, blonde haired boy in a white T-shirt standing behind him. The delinquent's two companions, a chubby boy wearing a bandana and a slender one with dark hair and wearing an orange-brown top were also glaring menacingly at the newcomer. Their scowls intensified when they saw exactly who it was. "I don't like that face of yours."_

"_Hey… isn't he __**that**__?" the chubby kid asked._

"_Yeah… the punk that keeps painting on walls and causing trouble for everybody else," the boy in orange stated, the three of them all turning at once to confront the interloper. "What're __**you**__ doing here, that?"_

_The blonde haired boy glared back at each of them, moments before his eyes came around to rest on the kid kneeling at their feet. The girl lying on the ground appeared to be both bruised and harassed._

_It was apparent what had been going on here._

_These three upstarts had been picking on someone that had probably upset them in some way, and judging by the tears on the victim's face the attacks they had been dealing the person had been quite severe. The fact that they had dragged the person all the way out here to the back of the academy near the tire swing where it was completely isolated meant that they could do whatever they wished here without consequence. It was sick._

_What's more Naruto recognized the victim as someone from his class. It was the shy, quiet girl with short blue hair that always sat somewhere behind him in the back rows._

_Her name was Hinata if he remembered correctly._

_The girl was looking up at him in surprise, an expression he was able to catch before he clenched his fists angrily and glared back at her attackers._

"_Hmph… I don't know who this 'that' person you're talking about is," the young Naruto said before smirking proudly. "Speak clearly, dumbasses."_

"_What?" one of the side-kicks shouted, stepping towards him and shaking his fist, "What was that?"_

"_You heard me," Naruto grinned, testing the waters a little more. "Who are you talking about? I don't know who you're talking about, so everything you're probably going to say about that person is going to go right over my head."_

"_You!" the other chubby delinquent shouted, pushing his friend back and stepping into the insolent kid's face. "Aren't you the good-for-nothing runt making lives difficult for everybody else?"_

"_It's true isn't it?" the leader asked, pulling his friend back to tower over the shorter kid. "You're the one?"_

"_I have a name, you know!" Naruto suddenly cut in, his voice climbing in volume over theirs and getting them to blink in surprise. Pulling his right up from his side, the blonde jerked his thumb across his chest before wiping it under his nose arrogantly. "It's Uzumaki Naruto, the future Hokage of the Hidden Leaf!"_

"_You?"_

"_Hokage?"_

_The three kids suddenly burst out laughing, holding their sides and pointing at the blonde as if he were crazy. The girl behind them, still looking ruffled with tear stains smeared across her cheeks, gazed admirably up at the stranger standing valiantly against her attackers. Even though he was smaller than them, younger than them and out-numbered three to one, he was standing up to these brutes and drawing their attention away from her. He wasn't scared of them at all._

_Sure, she remembered this particular boy. She remembered him from class, from training, and from passing him on the streets with one of her caretakers. She'd heard of his exploits, causing havoc and ruin wherever he went, and making lives incredibly stressful for all of the villagers. Heck, she had even questioned about him and his nature many times with her guardians in the past, but they had always either held their tongues or gave her explicit instruction not to associate with him because he was 'dangerous', 'foul' and 'mischievous.' It was a different reason every day._

_For so long she had wondered what kind of person he really was and why everybody said to stay away from him. But as she knelt on the grass, looking up at him and seeing him stand up to the three boys that had been picking on her minutes before, she could only wonder why a person said to be so untrustworthy, was rescuing her._

_It made her eyes shimmer with awe and curiosity._

'_He's so brave,' she thought._

"_A brat like you can't become one," the leader of the trio with the cap exclaimed, cocking a fist back with a malicious grin. "Just shut up and buzz off!" He threw a punch._

_Unexpectedly though, the blonde haired boy standing directly in front of the attacker suddenly swayed back, bending to an almost impossible angle so that his antagonist's wild swing sent him stumbling forward with a yelp. The second his footing went, Naruto threw a right up at him in a hooking motion. Whether it was a hook or an uppercut no one knew, but the result was the same as any punch carrying any weight. Naruto hit his target right underneath the boy's chin and lifted him a foot off the ground before he dropped like a dead weight. The jinchuriki then snapped back into a standing position like a pop-up in a book the moment his foe's body hit the floor._

_The blonde cracked his knuckles while facing the two remaining bullies down, who were now looking at him in shock. "You guys are older than me right? Do you like picking on kids smaller than you? Kids who are weaker than you?" He saw them grit their teeth and raise their fists in preparation for an attack. "That is so not cool. So in return I'll give you a little present! Say hi to my demon right hand!"_

_The chubby boy went for him first, but Naruto dashed right at him in response and sent a killer right cross across his jaw. The blow sent spit flying and his opponent crashing to the grassy floor, seconds before his other companion rushed at the blonde with a wild swing. Just like with his other opponent, Naruto swayed under it and stepped around, waiting for the kid to spin back and chase him with a series of untamed punches. The blonde backed away from them with a playful grin on his face, ducking and weaving around knock-out blows before his back suddenly smacked into a tree trunk._

_He looked behind him momentarily, a split second before seeing the boy in the orange jacket rush at him with a roar. Smirking, Naruto jumped into the air and placed both feet against the tree behind him. Hands in his pockets, he then kicked off and spun around his swinging opponent, who unintentionally punched the tree with a painful crack._

"_OW-OW-OW!" the boy cried out, clenching his bark-covered fist while turning around. He saw Naruto standing directly behind him with that ever-present grin still stretched across his lips, a split second before his entire world blacked out._

_The reason for this was the blonde haired boy's foot shooting straight off the ground in a perfect, vertically drawn, skyward kick, slamming him in the jaw and lifting him into the air. A second later, the last bully dropped to his knees and face planted the ground._

_Naruto smirked at his fallen opponent and stepped away coolly. "And let that be a lesson to yah." Scraping his sandals on the grass, he then turned his attention towards the girl to see her gazing across at him in sheer astonishment. "Yo! Are you okay?"_

_Before Hinata could say anything out of gratitude for his actions, a rustling of bushes behind her caught her attention and the Hyuuga looked around to see a guardian from her clan come running up to her. "Hinata-sama!" He skidded to a stop in front of the surprised child. "Are you okay?" He then took note of the carnage around him. The beaten or unconscious boys lying across the ground were the first to come to his attention, before his eyes looked up and landed on the blonde haired boy standing by the last one lying at his feet. The Hyuuga blinked, "He's…"_

_Frowning, the man took Hinata by the hand and gently, yet hurriedly, pulled her to her feet. "Come, Hinata-sama. This is no place for you."_

"_B-But wait!" the girl exclaimed, looking desperately towards the spiky-haired youngster, "H-He came to my rescue!"_

"_He is none of our concern. Do not associate yourself with him," the Chunin stated firmly, earning a surprised glance from the young heiress. He then began dragging her along, wanting to vacate the premises and get as far away from the jinchuriki as possible. "Now come."_

_Hinata was overwhelmed. Why was she being led away so suddenly? Why was she being taken away from the person who saved her? The moment she felt her feet start to move; endless questions began plaguing her thoughts. She didn't know where to start._

_However, instead of fighting against the current, the Hyuuga allowed herself to get led away by her guardian, at the same time looking back toward the brave soul that had stood up to her villains. When she did, she saw Naruto looking back at her in bewilderment, before a saddened expression overcame his face and his gaze turned southwards. He didn't wave her off or anything at first, choosing to keep his hands in his pockets and to kick at a clump of dirt at his feet._

_A moment later however, upon realizing that being sad wouldn't do him any good, he looked back up towards the retreating pair and smiled. The small gesture soon transformed into his characteristic grin and he waved back with vigor._

_It was almost like he was saying he was okay._

_Hinata, still being dragged through the small wooded area, returned his smile and blushed before looking away to hide her embarrassment. When she looked back to exchange his kind wave of parting with another, she saw much to her surprise that he was no longer there. Only the unconscious bullies remained._

_Her hero had vanished, like a ghost on the wind…_

OOO

_**Six months later…**_

_Sitting alone in a hot spring up in the hills of his village overlooking a better part of the suburbs, one which he had found all on his own while out wrecking destruction wherever he could, the jinchuriki Naruto was busy scrubbing himself down from a long day of troublemaking, training, and getting into a lot of fights._

_Apparently that scrap of three from a few weeks ago hadn't been the only 'tough' kids on the block._

_The order of the jungle was that wherever you saw one delinquent there were always thousands more hiding somewhere in the same neighborhood. That meant that there was always trouble around every block and, being Naruto, the boy didn't give a squat about territories, family groups or whatever._

_Like he always said to himself every morning whenever he got up and out of bed; he WAS the trouble, he WAS the danger, and he couldn't care less about any of that divided society crap. Always on the lookout for 'opportunities' and getting himself involved in some way, the blonde had managed to grab the attention of some local hoods by painting his signature on what they claimed to be 'their' wall. Just like how dominoes fell, he was quickly set upon by the entire gang in seconds._

_The resulting clash to follow was the same as every other day. Naruto beat the shit out of every single one of them while taking some bruises for himself as a reward for his efforts, before walking away with a wide grin on his face. The boys had been like… several years his senior; __**teenagers**__. Being a ninja in training and still nine years old of course, that little scruff was just another workout for him._

_After rubbing the bruise on his cheek from taking a hard punch from a blind spot, Naruto folded his arms and glared impatiently across the small steaming pond nestled in the forest covered hillside. As pleasant as this was, he was still a little sore._

"_Those dumbasses. They didn't know who they were messing with," the jinchuriki thought, sticking his tongue out. "I'm going to be awesome one day. They'll see!" An upset frown replaced his foul look when he said his next words quietly, "They'll all see…"_

_Looking around at his sanctuary, he couldn't ignore the fact that he was alone. The only other signs of life he could make out in this area were the sounds of frogs and crickets, and he couldn't even see them. Nothing else. The whole atmosphere made him submerge himself further into the water and blow bubbles in a bored manner._

_He so wished he had somebody to talk to who wouldn't turn their back on him for the rest of their lives._

_As if answering his plight, a rustling in the bushes drew his attention toward the woods. A moment later after locking onto the source of the disturbance, a family of nihonzaru monkeys suddenly came out of the brush, surprising the blonde._

_Naruto watched intently as they gathered around his spring, taking their time to test the safety of the area and hopping in once assured that there was no danger present. An adolescent monkey crawled circles around the pond a few times before perching itself on a stone next to the startled blonde._

_At first baffled by the little critters, upon seeing the family hop in to bathe the jinchuriki was able to relax once more and spent the next couple of minutes counting their numbers. Quickly figuring they were here to keep him company, a smile came to his face and he turned to the young monkey sitting close by with great enthusiasm. "H-Hello," Naruto exclaimed, tilting his head at the adolescent on the rock. "You're not afraid of me… are you?"_

_The monkey responded in its native tongue before splashing at the blonde playfully. The jinchuriki giggled before flicking water back at it, earning a squeak before it dived into the water._

"_Hey… no fair!" Naruto exclaimed, getting splashed by the squirt's dive. The youngster surfaced nearby, earning a laugh from the child. "D-Do you want to play?" The monkey looking at him from the water waded around and back into the shallows, splashing water at Naruto who returned fire. "Alright! You're on!" Seizing the opportunity the jinchuriki then began trading shots with the little ball of fur while its family relaxed nearby._

_The afternoon drew on as Naruto and the family of monkeys bathed. After an hour or so passed it was eventually time for the lot of them to get out and, not wanting to part from the monkeys he was able to befriend in his time in the spring, Naruto pulled on his clothes and decided to clamber after them back into the woods. He played tag with the young ones high up in the trees and ran around in the field._

_Having longed for the company of others for so long, it wasn't a surprise for a child his age to respond to even those much different from him. At least these friendly animals of the mountains and woods didn't recoil at his presence. They didn't snarl, glare or throw rocks at him, they didn't run or hide… they were honestly really nice._

_It made Naruto genuinely laugh out in joy, for the first time in a long while…_

* * *

**Present…**

**A year later…**

Naruto woke bolt upright from his bed, blinking away his sleep as he stared towards the wall at the foot of his bed. Appearing both baffled and drowsy from the exhausted rings around his eyes, he looked around his room momentarily to reacquaint himself with his surroundings… and to possibly get a handle on reality.

Okay, he wasn't at the park, he wasn't in the trees behind his school, he wasn't in his living room, and he certainly wasn't up in the valleys next to the _Hokage Monument_. Soon determining that he was actually in his room and in his bed, he concluded that the events he had been watching through his eyes moments before were merely memories of a bygone time; turbulent, upsetting and filled with brief glimmers of happiness.

They were what shaped his life up to today.

Groaning, Naruto rubbed the back of his head and picked up his bedside clock. He groaned when he saw the time. _"Two-thirty? Still too early!"_ he thought to his dismay before setting it back down and giving a yawn. _"Damn dreams…"_

With that curse made to his own biological clock and his adventurous mind, he then laid down flat and pulled the covers back over him.

Hopefully his next dreams wouldn't be so stirring…

XXX

**Two weeks later…**

**Early morning…**

Another peaceful night and another beautiful sunrise; a predetermined event that told everyone across the country that all was right with the world. The rays of light from the golden ball that drew across the sky filtered down onto the landscape, illuminating every corner and filling in every shadow. Peaking over the rolling hillsides and forests its magnificent glaze soon reached the hidden village of _Konohagakure_, which greeted its warmth with a welcoming breeze and the glow of sweet dew built up from the night before.

The blend of nature with human settlement, as well as the manmade marvel known as the _Hokage Monument_ sitting comfortably in the background made the glimmering picture of faultlessness a sight to behold. It was like somebody speed-painted the entire village based on their own thoughts of what the most tranquil place in the world was like every waking hour. If it weren't flying the flag of a shinobi village or was plagued with such a questionable history it would have been paradise.

To the people living inside of its walls though, it was just home. This was precisely what ran through a particular shopkeeper's mind as he prepared to open the doors of his business to the populace. Immediately upon pushing up the roller door of his general items store he stretched his back and greeted the sun with a satisfied yawn. He stepped out onto the street with a delightful smile on his face.

That was until he turned around and looked up at the front of his shop that had been passed down to him from his father and the father before him. A shriek escaped his lips and he jumped further out into the middle of the road.

"Wh-What?! What the hell?!"

It was horrifying. His shop was covered in paintings of various symbols, words that should never be uttered in public and images that were either too abstract to make out or too shocking to even talk about. Not only that, but the poor salesman's building wasn't the only one that was hit by the maelstrom of paint works.

From left to right up and down the neighborhood, every single roof, wall, door, window and fence in sight was covered in the atrocious street art. It wasn't even the good kind of street art either; it was the terrible graffiti, single-colored, time-wasting bullshit you could find anywhere on any sign and there was a shit ton of it. It looked like somebody had just done it on the fly because it sure as hell wasn't done over the entire night, but that wasn't the main problem right now. Almost everyone who was awake at this time and outside was looking up in mortification at their once glamorous suburb.

"What is this?"

"How terrible."

"Disgraceful!"

"It's everywhere, honey! Look! Even the clothes on the line got painted!"

"Who did this?"

As questions and exclamations began filtering out from every villager and shopkeeper present, boisterous laughter suddenly filled the air and forced everyone in the vicinity to crane their heads towards a nearby overpass. There, standing on top of cluster of drainpipes straddling the gap, the culprit responsible for the aforementioned crime stood over the crowd far below with his arms proudly folded, a bucket at his feet and a wide grin on his face.

Dressed in an orange jacket with short blue sleeves with an orange arrow on each sleeve, orange cargo shorts and a pair of ski goggles slapped over his head, the blonde haired menace known throughout the village cast his ominous shadow across the street from the sun now hitting his back, lighting him up like a superhero under spotlight.

The blonde's grin flashed into view once all eyes landed on him.

"That's right! It was me!" the boy with spiky blonde hair exclaimed. "Uzumaki Naruto at your service! Remember that name well… because I'm going to be Hokage some day!"

With that announcement made he wasted no time in making his getaway and took off down the street at speed, leaping across from rooftop to rooftop.

"Come back here!"

"Damn it! It was _him_ again!"

For a ten year old academy student, he was damn quick. The villagers could do nothing except attempt to give chase, point fingers and throw curses at him as he vacated the premises with fleeter feet than a cat running from a garden hose. Within seconds he was out of sight, leaving behind a trail of atrocities and fuming shop keepers.

The owner of the general store growled and crossed his arms, now standing amongst a whole crowd of villagers who had also been attacked by the little menace. "What a nuisance. He's made a big mess."

The man next to him nodded in agreement, "Even if we want to file a complaint he's got no parents we can nag to."

"What'll we do?" another concerned villager asked, a woman who turned out with the rest of the crowd holding up her summer kimono, now covered in colored paint reading the blasted perpetrator's name. "Who's going to pay for all of this?"

By the time the unpleasantness started to waft off of the targets for that day, Naruto was long gone and running down some random road many blocks away. He was still grinning mischievously from ear to ear and giggling non-stop, thoroughly satisfied at what he had been able to accomplish in a short half-hour. If he were a dog, then he would have pretty much claimed that entire area as _his_ territory.

"Suckers," Naruto exclaimed, laughing out loud as the paint bucket he had trailing behind him rattled on the wind. "Naruto: five-hundred! Village idiots: zero!" He stuck his tongue out.

Once he was certain that he had pulled far enough away from the danger zone, Naruto allowed his sprint to slow to a jog before dropping into a comfortable stride. He waded in the satisfaction of seeing all of the villagers' reactions to his latest felony and bathed in the afterglow. However, while he was walking down a quiet suburb way out of reach of anyone bound to be seeking revenge on him, he stopped when he heard a familiar call from nearby.

"I'm heading off mum!"

Eyes training left as his feet carted to a stop, Naruto saw the door to one of the nearby homes open and a boy around his age come running out, shortly followed by whom he guessed was his younger brother and their mother. The parent stopped the younger of the two from running off prematurely by holding out two bento boxes, all neatly wrapped and ready for them. It was a homemade meal only a loving family member could prepare for her children.

"Hold on, sweetie. You forgot something," the mother exclaimed with humor in her voice.

The older boy skidded clumsily and rushed back, looking slightly abashed, "Oops! Sorry, mum!" the youngster laughed, taking the box from her when it was lowered to him. "What did you make for us today?"

"Did you make us omelets?" the younger brother asked eagerly while tackling his older brother in a playful manner. "Is it omelets?" They looked up to see their mother beaming at them.

"Of course. I made a lot."

"_**Yay!"**_ both cheered excitedly, after which they then ran off with their bento boxes held overhead, like they were trophies won in contest and needed to be elevated. They celebrated their way down the street, looking back to see their mother waving at them.

"Be careful you two," she yelled out to them.

"We will, mum!" the older brother called.

"Love you!"

Naruto's expression sunk as he watched the two siblings head on their way while their mother saw them off from her home's doorsteps. After a few seconds of looking and seeing the parent walk back inside, upon floundering over the memory of the warm bond he saw that they shared as a family the jinchuriki then turned his gaze back to the road ahead of him again and he shuffled on. With his head and spirit set on an extreme low, he began dragging his feet away to wherever he wanted to go next.

Where? Well… that was a question he would really like answered.

Obviously no one was waiting for him back home. No one was waiting for him anywhere.

"_This sucks,"_ he muttered, feeling a lot smaller than he had been before; even after all of his big talk to the villagers about becoming Hokage. Speaking of which, after reaching the end of the road and finding himself in some quiet backstreet the boy was able to get a great spectator's view of the entire monument itself laid out on the horizon.

He gritted his teeth and dropped the paint can he was carrying. The yellow splashed over the ground as he pointed up at the vacant expressions of the four historic faces watching over the entire community.

"What are YOU looking at, huh?" Naruto shouted, ignoring the startled looks of a couple of nearby villagers. "Do you think this bothers me?! Being all alone?! Having no parents?! Being the number one loser?! The dead-last?! HUH?! Well screw you?!"

Rubbing his eyes against his arm vigorously to get rid of any tears he was probably holding back, he then brought his fist around and punched it towards the monument.

"Just you wait! I WILL become Hokage someday! And when I _do_ become Hokage and everyone has acknowledged me as the number one ninja in this village, I will have MY face engraved right next to the rest of your ugly mugs!" Naruto bellowed, his voice carrying over the neighborhood and scaring a few birds out of their roosts. "And believe me when I say this, my face will look a thousand times better than all of yours combined!" Once his words echoed into silence, he heaved in several deep breaths of air before straightening his posture and changing his expression.

From an onlooker's point of view, he looked especially proud at his outburst.

"I will become the greatest Hokage there ever will be. Believe it," Naruto declared under his breath with a small smile, before putting his hands in his pockets and marching off. With all of his yelling and vows being spouted at the top of his lungs, he had completely forgotten about the can of paint he'd dragged all the way out here with him. It had served its purpose anyway, so there was no further need for it.

"A Hokage like that needs to be strong and cool! And I'm going to be both!" the blonde recited quietly with a grin. He nodded affirmatively to himself when he parted from the suburb; heading off to God only knew where his body wanted to take him. _"I'm gonna get some training in."_

It was still early in the morning, he'd had his fun messing with society, and he had a full day of time left to burn. I mean, what else was there for him to do? It wasn't like he had anything important scheduled for the rest of the day…

OOO

**Ninja Academy…**

"Ami?"

"Here, sensei," the above girl answered to Iruka, who was currently doing role call for his class as per the usual routine.

Nodding and checking off her name, he then went on to the next.

"Choji?"

"Here!" the Akimichi exclaimed through a bag of chips.

"Satoshi?"

"Here!"

"Kiba?"

"Yo!" came the reply from said Inuzuka, currently sitting with his legs kicked up on his desk somewhere in the back row. The teacher quickly spotted him and nodded in acknowledgement to his presence, but frowned a split second later.

"Feet. Off!" Iruka said in a loud and dangerous tone of voice. The member of the dog clan quickly took his finger out of his ear and did as he was told, lest he be punished for the small act of rebellion. "Better."

With that insubordination quickly dealt with, the man drawled on. "Shino?"

"Here," the Aburame droned back in his usual tone of voice.

"Excellent. Shikamaru?" Iruka exclaimed, looking up. When he received no reply on the first call, the Chunin raised an eyebrow. "Shikamaru Nara?" The class's collective attention immediately began panning left and right for the next few seconds of silence, before all eyes eventually fell onto the middle row in the center of the room where every student within peripheral range could see said boy lying with his face on his desk and arms crossed under his forehead for support. It was plain to see exactly what the problem was, which had Iruka's eye twitching.

"SHIKAMARU NARA!" the teacher yelled out, startling the entire room.

A low groan came from the boy as he slowly raised his head, looking back down towards the front of the class with bags under his eyes and an incredibly drowsy air about his character. He scratched his head when he saw his teacher glaring back up at him.

"I'm here," Shikamaru yawned, figuring that it was him that all the fuss was about. Though the entire reason for his existence here was to sit in conformity with the rest of the cabbage patch, it didn't mean that he had to follow protocol to a tee. It also didn't mean that he couldn't be aware of his surroundings either.

Satisfied, Iruka furiously ticked the boy's name off before moving along. "And don't go falling asleep again!" Hoping that the class slacker would at least obey _that_ command, though in all likelihood he probably wouldn't be able too, the man chose to move on with his list. The next name that came up didn't have him holding his breath in the slightest. "Naruto!"

Several seconds passed as the teacher waited for a response. But after a certain amount of time ticked by and nothing was born from his initial inquiry, Iruka looked up at the class with a glare. He'd half-expected this development, yet proceeded on a steady course, "Naruto Uzumaki? Has anybody seen him?"

"_**No,"**_ was the immediate reply from the vast majority.

"Why would anyone give a rat's ass about that idiot?" a random boy in the middle row asked rather unpleasantly.

"He's a slacker and a nuisance. Let's just forget about him," another student, this time a girl, spoke out, earning her a round of nods of agreement from the rest of the room.

Iruka sighed as the mutterings regarding the whereabouts of their most troublesome classmate continued. In his honest opinion, his best guess was probably the most likely one. The brat was either wrecking havoc across the entire village under the ever watchful yet oblivious eyes of the local guard or he was off somewhere gallivanting about, wasting time, and making random proclamations about becoming this community's leader some day. Kami knew what the world would be like if that kid somehow got in command and started signing treaties on his village's behalf in the big seat.

Maybe that was the reason why some of the other teachers had repeatedly failed the kid in a lot of his theory work, because every adult who knew him by nature was unconsciously concerned for the future of the world's wellbeing. This had nothing to do with his umm… 'ahem', _baggage problem_, mind you.

With the issue highlighted and the mystery established, the Chunin lowered the clipboard with the list of names on it and under the drone that had escalated in volume amongst his students Iruka began scratching his chin in silent contemplation.

"Damn it, Naruto. What in the world are you doing now?"

Was he going to need aspirin after this one?

Based on previous events which have resulted in his summoning to the Hokage's office multiple times and being grilled out by swamps of angry villagers, yes, he probably was.

OOO

About half an hour out from the school, a new type of game was being played out on the busy streets of Konoha, and this time it didn't involve any large number of kids running around with a ball being kicked between them or anything like that. This was purely a test of patience and soon to be physical endurance for a single individual. Naruto had set this particular one up after finding quite a bit of value in knowing exactly how to duck and weave through a series of obstacles when you needed to escape from a band of persistent pursuers.

Come on. One didn't get as good at pulling practical jokes on people as he did without taking in a boat load of other skills to go along with his ability to make paper bombs from scratch and traps out of a few bits of thread and a log. Out of every student in the academy, Naruto was probably the best at setting up traps, and was the fittest and fastest in terms of long-distance sprinting, obstacle runs, and any kind of activity that required the participants to be able enough to pull through the miles. Even when lessons up at the school encouraging these activities were stopped due to time running out on them the blonde was never tired at the end of any of those sessions.

He simply plowed through the physical tests with ease. It was probably his main saving grace in the academy when it came to a usable set of skills for a shinobi… something which he went out of his way to purposely screw around with to mess with Iruka…

But enough with the old war stories; the jinchuriki had even more interesting things to focus on.

The program Naruto was currently investing his time in was one of the reasons why he was as good as he was when it came to pulling his own weight.

Crouching low in amongst the thick brush of an oak standing high above a cluster of apartment buildings, the blonde had his sharp eyes trained on a couple of birds perched on tall picket fence standing on the other end of a nearby garden. The two fast fliers grooming each others' feathers had no idea that something was watching them from the shadows and this time, out of the dozens of animals that could possibly be hunting them, it wasn't a cat. They didn't need to fear cats. They could sense them coming from a mile off.

This one was in a completely different league and class.

Making sure he sat downwind from them as per what he had learned from this routine, Naruto readied himself by grinding his feet into the branch he was on to test the foundations of his placement. It was solid and fixed. The movements of his hands, shoulders and legs were quieter than a leopard's as he crept along at an agonizingly slow pace, making sure to position his form well within striking distance.

Ten feet.

Beautiful.

The blonde grinned and licked his lips, his right hand flexing, _"Oh, I've got you this time Swift-chan!"_

Without a moment's warning, he pounced, exploding from the tree in a shower of leaves. The birds shrieked loudly as they took off, chirping madly with every flap of their wings. The blonde attacker landed perfectly upon the fence the animals had previously been perched on before giving chase to one…

A fork-tailed swallow with red feathers on its back shaped like a kunai.

The bird dove low for the buildings and weaved around them as well as other obstacles lying in its path including bushes, power-lines, poles, signs and lights at an incredible speed. It was so fast in fact that it immediately held confidence that it would be able to lose its attacker… completely misplacing the fact that when Naruto set out to do something, he would see it through to the end.

A shadow darting from the right across a line of rooftops told the swallow that it was being followed and it quickly made a sharp, ninety degree turn to avoid the blonde boy diving at it from above again, hand outstretched and aiming to catch it. The Uzumaki laughed out when he landed on a length of gutters lining another roof and began sliding along them like he was on a skateboard skidding down poles.

"You're not getting away from me this time!" Naruto shouted, reaching the end and flying off of the pipe right at the bird, which darted out of his reach again and into the trees. "COME BACK HERE!" He dove after it.

Completely ignoring the results of the commotion he was probably causing, Naruto pursued the bird through the trees relentlessly. He saw its red dot of a back dodge and weave gracefully through the smallest of gaps in the trees' branches it was flying through and, being the persistent son of a bitch that he was, he spared no effort in going after it. Amazingly enough, for the majority of his pursuit, he was following the exact same path the bird was without even snapping a twig.

This showed just how nimble as a human being he actually was.

Bursting out of the treetops right on the bird's forked tail, Naruto's hands grabbed at the air ferociously trying to catch the damn swift as it flew circles around him just within reach, avoiding the lashing claws of his determination. It was like the boy was attacking the air itself, his body twisting, contorting, warping and spinning as he tried to nab the critter, but all in vein. He growled out when he tried slapping it between his hands, only to catch nothing.

"Shit! Damn it! Gah… STOP FLYING AROUND ME!" Naruto shouted, completely ignoring the fact that he was now following the path of a full twenty story drop. It was when the bird finally shot off in some random direction when he finally noticed his main problem. "Oh SHIT!"

Eyes trained towards the ground, the blonde gritted his teeth and took action. He began a corkscrew spin, turning his body horizontal to the floor and slowing his drop. Once satisfied at the rate of his fall, he then threw all his limbs out in a sprawl, his right arm cocking out further to reveal a brace around his wrist. He flicked his hand once and produced a hook wrapped in rubber, which he snagged onto a power line.

Spinning around, he kicked off a nearby wall and shot down the cable, continuing pursuit of his quarry. "I'm not done yet!"

Able to keep tabs on the bird's movements, he made it to the end of the line and flung himself off, retracting the hook from his grip and barrel rolling onto a roof to absorb the impact. He jumped back into the hunt, chasing the bird now zigzagging its way in between the buildings once more.

Why this creature just didn't take off into the skies to completely outrun the blonde was beyond comprehension. Perhaps it took too much time to gain altitude to avoid a persistent foe, that it wasted energy, or that its favored method of losing air-capable predators was by sticking as close to the ground as possible and take the risk of ducking in and around the tightest of turns. Its aerial acrobatics and stunts were really impressive, especially as it was able to perform them while being struck at by Naruto's claw-like hands.

In any case, their cat and mouse game was undoubtedly intense as hell and soon enough, Naruto was back on its tail.

The pair danced across the air above _Konohagakure_ for the next fifteen minutes, dodging traffic, avoiding clothes-lines, despite Naruto hilariously crashing into one and draping himself in all sorts of horrendous garments, scaring house pets and startling a lot of civilians.

Eventually, all the maneuvers and zipping around corners surprisingly began to wear on the usually more energetic swallow, which slowed down just enough to catch its breath before deciding it had had enough.

It began to climb.

As predicted however, even with a swooping start it risked not only an attack from above but the build-up was excruciatingly slow, as opposed to its earlier maneuvers. Despite knowing this, it gunned its engines and went for it, completely missing Naruto leap across the gap between the buildings further down below before springing straight at it in one fluent move.

This was the 'mistake' the jinchuriki was waiting for the bird to make.

Sweating up a storm and covered in all kinds of crap from running after the bird across the entire village, Naruto flew right up at the climbing swallow and flipped through the air right over its head in a cart-wheeling motion. His swift left hand flew out from behind him along the exact same path the moment he was in reach, intercepting the bird, blindsiding it, and catching it.

"HA!" A laugh of triumph escaped the teen's lips before he went spiraling back towards the ground a dozen stories below.

Timing his descent, Naruto corkscrewed through a netting of power lines crisscrossing the main highway at arrow speed before balling up and spinning towards ground zero. In a frightening display of ferocity, momentum and grace, the blonde opened up just feet above the ground and slammed into it with a crouching stance, right into the road. He slid several feet forward before coming to a cloudy stop, throwing dust in all directions and scaring the shit out of nearby villagers.

Families and shopkeepers, as well as several Chunin that happened to be in the vicinity, instinctively leapt away at the sight of the boy.

Ignoring the whispers beginning to start up again, Naruto looked up with a flash of his goggles and down toward his enclosed left hand, which he had kept close to his chest. Panting heavily and dripping with sweat, the boy then turned his hand to look down at his fingers, where he saw much to his delight the bird that had _tried_ to get away locked in his gentle grip.

The swallow chirped and looked around it with a start, its chest heaving and head twitching this way and that. After several moments the eventual realization that it had finally been snagged became obvious, and it soon ceased clawing and attempting to wriggle its way out of the boy's hand. Its eyes fixed up at the blonde who chuckled and grinned back down at it warmly.

"Caught yah!" Naruto exclaimed, glancing down at the gauntlet on his wrist that contained his spring-loaded hook. "This thing really does come in handy. That was a great chase, Swifty-chan!"

The bird chirped again and ruffled its feathers under his palm, earning a nervous laugh from her captor.

"Whoa. Was that your boyfriend back there?" He received another chirp and a nip to his finger in response. "Ouch. Okay, geez. Sorry about that. It's just that I was really bored you see…" The bird fell into another tirade of chirps, interrupting him and getting Naruto to pull a double-take on the female flyer. "Hey, who are you calling a 'dumbass'? I didn't know you were on a _date_. Cut me some slack here." The swallow glared up at him, chirping sharply. "Insensitive? Okay, fine, I guess I can give you that one…"

While the bird bitched at being disturbed so suddenly, a shadow from in front of the crouching blonde fell over them and forced Naruto to look up in surprise. When he did he saw Iruka Umino standing over him with his hands on his hips and a look on his face that pretty much said 'yeah, you're in big trouble.' The tapping of his foot only added to the insane amount of tension that he had brought along with him and flooded the entire area with, giving the blonde a moment of pause to comprehend his current situation.

Silence prevailed between them, while the villagers scattered across the street stared with heavy anticipation hanging in the air. After a minute or so of prevailing silence, with nothing being said or shouted between the two for that entire period, Naruto then sprouted his trademark grin and pointed up at the man.

"I found you, Iruka-sensei!"

The man's hair bristled before he went into full 'rage' mode, complete with big-head and bulging veins, "IDIOT! _**I**_ FOUND _**YOU**_! YOU'VE GOT IT ALL BACKWARDS!"

The blonde cackled hysterically before bringing the hand he had caught the bird with up to show his teacher. He rotated his fist so that the creature was facing him and gave it a warm smile. "Hey. Sorry for bothering you, Swift-chan. No hard feelings?"

Having been chirping incessantly minutes before the sudden yelling score, which scared the poor thing into silence, the bird tilted its head a few times at its captor before bowing in resignation. It then chirped happily and nodded.

Naruto grinned, "I'm glad. Thank you." With that he then opened his hand and extended his finger so that the swallow could hop onto it and regain her bearings. The bird ruffled her feathers, using the precious few moments given to her to catch her breath before finally taking flight. Iruka and Naruto followed after her with their respective gazes until she was gone from sight.

The Chunin looked quite surprised, "Was that a Fire-Breasted Swallow?"

"Yup!" Naruto exclaimed while looking up at his teacher with a grin. "Her name is Swift-chan; my training partner."

His instructor looked back at him with an astonished blink, "That species of swallow is one of the fastest birds in the country. How were you able to catch her?"

"It wasn't easy," Naruto replied tiredly before thumping himself hard in the chest, "But I caught her with a combination of guts, speed and wit. I've been playing tag with her for over a year now, so I've gotten much, much better since when I first started."

"Whoa," Iruka smirked, giving the boy a complementary gesture, "Not bad. I guess that explains why you're so good at running away from the authorities?"

"Damn right."

"Not that it matters now though, because _I've_ caught you. Apparently I'm the only shinobi in this whole damn village, living or dead, who is able to," Iruka said, folding his arms and watching the boy rise to his feet and dust down his shorts. Even with this statement the blonde wasn't worrying about his predicament in the slightest. "Are you going to come quietly or do I have to drag you away from here kicking and screaming?"

"Well, other people would normally come quietly, but personally I prefer leaving a scene kicking and screaming. It's way more fun than walking," Naruto exclaimed without hesitation, earning a shake of the head from his normally intimidating teacher. The jinchuriki gazed up at the man without flinching or trembling. This was the truth about the blonde haired squirt as he was so bold and foolhardy he had no concept of fear from the familiar. "But before anything else happens, I have a quick question for you, sensei."

"Fire away."

"If you're here, talking with me," Naruto pointed at his chest before gesturing towards the Hokage tower where the academy was also located, "Then who's looking after the rest of the idiots?"

"Mizuki. I finally had a good reason to get that lazy-ass of a substitute teacher to do some actual work around my class instead of just dropping in whenever he feels like it," Iruka replied sternly, wondering whether his friend would be able to hold down the fort in his stead. Of course, seeing as how they were both disciplined and mature teachers the scar-faced individual with the ponytail really didn't think he had anything to worry about, and hence dismissed any further concerns on the matter. What he had to focus on now was the more pressing issue standing before him, "As for you, young man, you and I need to have a little chat regarding your absence from this morning's lecture…"

"Oh no," Naruto murmured with slumping shoulders. "Let me guess… _detention_?"

"As much as I'd 'love' to doll out some more chores for you to do as penalty for your actions, seeing as that this time you were actually doing something productive outside of class I'm going to let your little offense slide," Iruka said, before reaching out and grabbing the boy by the ear. The blonde let out a yelp of pain when he found his full weight and body being dragged down the road by his precious lobe. He was forced to stumble along at an incredibly fast pace to keep up with his smirking teacher. "Right now I'm more interested in putting those impressive and supposedly honed skills of yours to the test."

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Hey! Be careful, Iruka-sensei! You're going to rip my ear off!"

"Well then, if you don't want to have your entire brain pulled out of your head through the side then hurry up. We don't have all day."

"OW! S-Slow down! Where are you taking me?"

"Back to the academy," Iruka said with a playful grin. He looked down at his student just in time to see tears of anguish welling up in his eyes as he glared back up at him defiantly. "It's nearly second period… and you know what that means don't you?"

Taking a moment to think as he was dragged across the dirt against his will, Naruto blinked several times before a pained smirk came across his face.

"T-Taijutsu practice?"

"Exactly. It's free picks today, so you can choose whoever you want to be your part-"

"The village idiot Sasuke!" Naruto shouted immediately before his teacher had a chance to finish.

The man let out an amused and exhausted sigh, "I _was_ going to recommend Choji, but sure. Why not?" Iruka looked ahead of him again with a doubtful grimace. "Just try to take it seriously this time."

"I'll try… but… your lectures are always _so_ boring."

"Oh are they now?" Iruka asked while suddenly twisting the boy's ear, earning a yelp of agony. "Would you care to review that assessment? I don't think it was a very accurate or fair survey of my teaching methods."

"Ow! Ow! Ow! But it's true, sensei! I'm not going to lie about something like that!"

Iruka grinned sinisterly. "We'll see how long you'll be able to keep up that tough-guy act of yours once I have you scrubbing toilets with your tongue."

Well. Naruto wanted kicking and screaming; so he _got_ kicking and screaming.

OOO

**A couple hours later…**

Following the brief side show of Naruto being dragged through the homeroom door by his ear and recess, the class was quickly rounded up and taken out onto the fields outside of the academy building for some mixed sparring. Being the taijutsu portion of the day both Iruka and Mizuki made it their sworn responsibility to oversee each of their students' bouts, with contenders going up two at a time to compete in the ring. It was a circular space painted into the earth, outlining the boundaries between the arena and the barred area for observation. The matches were to take place within the circle, with those who are knocked out of the ring, deemed unable to continue or conceded defeat to their opponents determining the outcome of each round.

The whole thing went off with an explosive start with students showcasing mixed levels of skills and techniques, ranging from amateur to downright impressive. It was then when Naruto was eventually called up to the ring where he made his colorful declaration of war out to Sasuke, everyone sort of stopped.

What led on shortly after the whistle was blown was, pretty much, a battle of wills and grit as one of the two boys doggedly chased his opponent all across the ring with a flurry of ferocious dashes and attacks while the other pulled him along as though they were attached by string.

The most surprising aspect about this show though, was that Naruto wasn't the one doing the chasing. It was in fact the other way around.

Everybody watched on as the two academy students played cat-and-mouse with each other, one of whom was getting incredibly frustrated from not being able to land a single hit, whereas the other one was grinning from ear to ear while moving out of the way of every swing. The way Naruto was dodging his opponent though was going against every single taijutsu rule, maneuver and technique in the book.

Whilst others would simply weave, leap away, keep their distance or move around their enemies to outpace them, not that he wasn't doing it, Naruto was sticking at extremely close range to his target despite the onslaught of attacks and dodging from inside his opponent's innermost range.

He was close enough to exchange hits, but the blonde wasn't dishing out any at all. Instead of returning fire, he was ducking, weaving and swaying at peculiar and impossible angles while at the same time moving with gravity defying agility. Damn it if it didn't look spectacular, it was still pissing Sasuke off something fierce and looked really dangerous from Iruka's point of view.

How the hell was Naruto able to sway back to a full ninety degree angle and still backpedal like someone standing upright? That wasn't natural.

"_Damn it. He's gotten even faster since last time,"_ Sasuke gritted his teeth while giving chase, swinging at his target with straights and hooks. The jinchuriki however moved back, swaying and throwing his upper body this way and that, avoiding the sharp blows while also staying directly in front of the teen, almost taunting him. _"You can dodge well, but how the hell are you going to throw attacks at me from those angles?"_

A sharp roundhouse kick came to nail Naruto across the face, but the jinchuriki swayed back to dodge it at the last second before springing back up, his face appearing just inches in front of Sasuke's. The piercing blue eyes of the blonde met the Uchiha's charcoal one, the latter's gaze widening in shock when he was confronted by the roguish, blank stare of his opponent.

"_W-What?"_ Sasuke blinked, a split second before realizing Naruto was just standing directly in front of him and staring at him. He cocked his left over his shoulder. _"You need to get back!"_ A jab shot out, but the blonde suddenly zipped out of his line of sight and the Uchiha ended up hitting nothing but air. Emitting a frustrated growl, the genius looked left and right searchingly before swiveling about a hundred-eighty degrees, where he saw his opponent circling him with his hands and guard hanging at his sides. _"How the… what…?"_

Sasuke was baffled.

"How is he moving like that?" Kiba finally spoke up from where he stood at the edge of the class with his hands on his hips. He watched Naruto contort his body in a twisting sway, avoiding Sasuke's spinning back-kick when the genius once again gave pursuit, before dashing out of reach. The jinchuriki managed to put a mile of space between them even before his opponent was dropping his leg back into a stance. "What is he like a cat or something? No human being should be able to bend that way and at such speed, and manage to escape so quickly."

"Maybe it's not so much a question of his humanity. He is clearly human," Shino replied pointedly. The young Aburame glanced towards his classmate standing beside him and saw the Inuzuka looking just as perplexed as every other kid watching from the sidelines. "Perhaps the question we should really be asking ourselves is _who_ is capable of executing such impossible feats? Naruto is clearly one of the few."

"Stop nitpicking dude, geez," Kiba grumbled back.

Seeing how desperately hard Sasuke was trying to catch his elusive prey had every single girl in the class standing on their toes. Looking on with hands on their chests, cheeks or just staring with hopeful expressions in play, Sakura, Ino and the rest of the 'cheerleading squad' once again began voicing their undying support for the genius of the academy. They cupped their hands to their mouths and cried out his name.

"Sasuke-kun! You can do it!" Sakura cried.

"Beat that class clown, Sasuke-kun!" Ino also shouted.

"You're awesome!"

"Yes! You're the best!"

"Don't let that idiot mess with you! He's pathetic!"

"You can knock that slacker's butt to the ground easy! Come on, Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke bit his bottom lip when he tried for another jab, only for Naruto to sway with it, keeping his nose millimeters in front of the knuckles the entire motion before following it back when the Uchiha withdrew it. Naruto kept doing that for the following attacks, resulting in a tick mark forming on the genius's forehead.

The shouting from the fan club wasn't helping him.

"_You think this is easy?"_ Sasuke thought furiously while glaring after his opponent who danced around him with his roguish grin. _"I've dealt with speed before, but this is completely different to anything I've ever seen this idiot do in the past. His evasive tendencies are just whack and his stance is so unrefined."_ Seeing the blonde skipping ahead of him with his hands dropped at his sides and wearing that crafty smile on his face had the raven haired boy's gaze tighten. _"I guess it suits him, being the class clown and all…"_

Mizuki chuckled as he watched Sasuke rush in to reengage. With the village-famed genius initiating the second round, the white haired man glanced over at the main homeroom teacher for council, "Sasuke seems to be having his hands full with Naruto today. Quite the surprise, huh?"

The scarred man groaned and rubbed the aforementioned mark across his nose, "Yes, but this is completely ridiculous. Naruto's making a mockery of his match and isn't even trying to hit back. What is he thinking?"

"Who knows what goes through that kid's brain most of the time," the other Chunin shrugged before looking back to see Naruto once again dancing around his opponent with ease. "But still, I gotta give him points for dodging."

"And I'm taking away those points for a lack of common sense and security for his own safety," Iruka frowned while tapping his clipboard impatiently. "Those moves do not fall under standard taijutsu guidelines or practices; not the ones _I_ taught him." It seemed a little harsh, but what Naruto was doing was completely unorthodox.

Seriously, what could he accomplish from this tactic? He wasn't even fighting back.

Sasuke dashed straight at Naruto again, the crowd swooning when the genius dove in with a beautifully corked up left straight. He was clearly intent on bringing this battle to close-range, to trap his opponent on the edge, to cut off his escape and to bring him to heel with a quick take-down. However, just as he was getting within striking distance, the jinchuriki hovering outside of range of his punch suddenly dove in to meet him halfway.

In the blink of an eye Naruto's face was stopped just inches from his target. The speed the jinchuriki used shocked the Uchiha and, just as Sasuke was thrusting out with his punch, he felt the unmistakable tap of his opponent's knuckles against his. A split second later the blonde in front of him spun around and allowed him to dive right passed him, resulting in the raven haired boy's fist striking nothing but air again.

Baffled, the Uchiha spun around and watched his target pull away for the hundredth time, earning a blink of amazement._ "He just tapped my fist in mid-motion! D-Did he do that on purpose?"_ A bead of sweat ran down Sasuke's face as he watched his opponent stop and stare back at him with those cool blue orbs of his. _"Is he… telling me that he can see my moves? That he can hit me anytime he wants to?"_

The grin that appeared on Naruto's face had Sasuke grit his own teeth and glare back furiously.

"_Bullshit!"_ Sasuke turned and charged, attacking his opponent with a barrage of sharp punches and kicks. No longer fighting with the grace and form he held before, the Uchiha began striking at his foe with even more ferocity. His style began losing all refinement and tact, all of it being replaced by anger and desperation. _"This slacker-clown is just toying with me. That's it. He's just fooling around and trying to psyche me out. There's no way in hell he'll be able to hit me if I keep attacking him at this speed. No way!"_ But try as he did, with all his attacks raining down on his target no matter what he attempted the Uchiha just could not catch the orange blur darting in and out of his view. The effort was becoming more and more frustrating. _"Damn it!"_

Sasuke swung with a right hook, but the jinchuriki swayed and dropped out of sight once more. The Uchiha, losing his target for a third time, tried to search him out across the ring to give pursuit. He glanced left and right repeatedly, trying to locate and tail any trace of his ridiculously elusive prey.

Unbeknownst to him however Naruto had relocated again, having placed himself directly behind his opponent. Back to back, he followed Sasuke's motions of his body and stayed out of his line of sight. When he looked left, he did too. When he looked right, he mimicked.

Grinning mischievously, Naruto figured he'd messed with his rival enough and stuck his backside out so that it slammed into Sasuke's, knocking the boy stumbling forwards and startling him. Unable to regain control of his motion the Uchiha lost his footing and went crashing hard into the ground, rolling a couple of times before managing to stop himself. On all fours, the genius glared up toward his opponent who had stopped moving and bouncing around, but was still smiling at him with his bullshit lowered guard.

Wiping the dirt off of his face on the back of his fist, Sasuke shot back up to his feet. Though he stumbled, he corrected. There was no way he was going to let his pride get destroyed by a delinquent academy student who didn't take anything seriously. It was time to put an end to this.

Before he could do anything though, Naruto started swaying his upper body from side to side; using some weird motions to try and either coax his opponent into attacking him again or was attempting to figure out a way to get around his antagonist's blows, which he had long since visualized in his head.

Either way, his swaying annoyed the class genius. "Stop messing around," Sasuke said loudly.

"Aww, come on, teme," Naruto grinned teasingly. "What good is a sparring match if you're not having any fun?"

"This isn't supposed to be fun, Naruto," Iruka suddenly spoke up, silencing the gawking crowd and drawing the jinchuriki's attention. The Chunin glared across at him. "This is supposed to be a serious test meant to determine your current level of skill and strength in your group. If you keep messing around the way you are now, I have no choice but to disqualify and fail you for your outrageous behavior."

"What?" the jinchuriki blinked, abruptly stopping his swaying movements and raising a hand meekly in protest, "B-But sensei…"

"Last chance, Naruto," Iruka interrupted, his gaze hardening the moment he shot down his response. "You can either show me something of value, anything at all you may have learnt, or you can give up. I don't like wasting my time with your antics."

"Yeah, Naruto," Kiba shouted at him while waving his fist, "Stop playing chicken and do something already!"

"You can't beat, Sasuke-kun!" Ino also yelled with a cocky smirk. "You'll never be able to beat him! You're just a loser and a slacker!"

"Yeah, dead-last!"

"Fight for real or don't fight at all!"

"Stop dancing around like a pansy and do some proper fighting!"

"Kick his ass, Sasuke-kun!"

"Beat him already, Sasuke! You can do it!"

"Knock his punk ass down!"

The combination of his teacher's glare, the seriousness of his voice, and the way everyone started rooting for Sasuke again while at the same time insulting him and dismissing his oddball performances from before, had Naruto's confused gaze slowly transform into a harsh glare. He lowered his head and allowed his eyes to become overshadowed, all aspects of his previously cheerful demeanor melting away before he turned back to face his opponent now back in an offensive stance several feet in front of him.

What was wrong with him? What would it take to impress these people? How much more did he have to do to get them to side with him, to get them to see that what he was doing was just as good as the genius's abilities? Was his presence that repugnant? Was his smile that unpleasant? Was it him that they despised, despite how carefree and friendly he was?

Well… it didn't matter now.

The jinchuriki looked up at his foe and narrowed his eyes.

"Fine…"

Naruto dug his feet into the ground and widened his stance. He froze just outside of Sasuke's reach, telling everyone he was now ready to duke it out. No more running.

The crowd continued jeering and cheering, whereas Iruka kept his eyes on his student to see how the fight would progress now. If anything interesting was going to happen, it was going to happen in this round.

Sensing an opportunity, the Uchiha frowned and shuffled forward carefully, his left held out in front of him to gauge the distance and his right at his side. With the change in the atmosphere the genius knew right then and there that he was going to be guaranteed an actual fist-fight this time, one that would be fought on his own terms and not on his opponent's.

Right now, he was more certain than ever that he'll be able to get his foe in an exchange and win.

"_Come on. Let's see what you've really got,"_ Sasuke thought, clenching his left for a straight.

The distance between them was quickly cut away and the Uchiha was ready to begin.

However, just as Sasuke's left was being drawn back for a punch, a sudden flash of light froze him, followed shortly by a sharp pain and the distinct echo of a sharp thump, like a deft bag was just hit by a jackhammer.

From the crowd's point of view, it was instantaneous.

Naruto was the one to make the first move against his opponent, but instead of pulling off some predictable wild swing or busting out one of his stupid moves from before, what he did stunned every single person on the field.

All the crowd saw from where they were standing was the blurred motion of his fist, the boy's left being drawn back from a clear hit and a cloud of sweat exploding off of Sasuke's face, the latter's head recoiling from the unexpected impact of a blazingly fast punch nobody was able to see.

The Uchiha stumbled back a few, head still cocked upwards and a shocked look slapped clean across his face.

With his left still swinging in front of him, Naruto glared straight into his opponent's astonished eyes, awaiting a response. But when none came and his attack wasn't met with any retaliation, the jinchuriki grunted, straightened up out of his stance and placed his hands behind his head.

In a shocking turn of events, Naruto was the one to turn his back on his rival and begin walking away, his nose held high and eyes closed. The crowd and his teachers watched him leave the ring with astonishment emanating off of every one of them.

"This is boring. I've had enough," Naruto said in his usual dejected tone. "I'm going to go find someone who can put up an actual fight…"

Shaking the shock out of his head, Iruka gritted his teeth and stepped forward, "N-Now hold it right there, Naruto! You only threw one punch and you didn't even give the sign of reconciliation! Get back here!"

The jinchuriki stopped in his tracks and spun around, glaring back at his teacher with what everyone immediately saw as anger, "WHY THE HELL SHOULD I?!"

Iruka flinched at the volume in his voice and recoiled a bit when he got a good look of the boy's eyes. Naruto's irises were shimmering with unshed tears and the amount of rage he was shooting towards him was almost suffocating. The Chunin backed away at the sight of his stare alone and didn't say another word afterwards, merely looking back silently with a bewildered gaze. Because of his lack of response, the teacher and the rest of his bewildered class could only watch wordlessly as the jinchuriki walked away from the clearing and disappeared around the next bend.

Once Naruto was gone, every able person in the vicinity returned their attention to Sasuke, who was still standing in the exact same spot in the middle of the ring. Seeing opportunity for audience with the last of the Uchiha, all the girls in sight rushed to his side, with Sakura and Ino being the ones to lead the charge from the lines. They crowded around him bubbling with excitement and flashing him their most approving and flattering gazes, all of them looking forward to fawning over the boy's magnificence.

"That was amazing, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Yeah! Did you see what you did?" Ino asked with equal enthusiasm while leaning towards the genius with her cutest smile. "You scared the loser away without even trying! Th-That was… incre-…"

All of a sudden the girl's remarks stopped, as did every other girl's exclamations. The Yamanaka and the rest of the troop stared at the boy for several moments in silence, wondering what exactly was wrong with him until they all backed away in shock and alarm bells started ringing. Sakura was the one that brought the rest of the audience to the attention of the problem with a gasp and a wave of her hand.

"Iruka-sensei! Come quick!" she screamed.

Hearing the fuss as well as his name being called, the Chunin detached himself from his notes and pushed his way into the ring. Shortly arriving at the scene of the disturbance with the boys, Iruka gave a frustrated sigh and looked down at the Uchiha, figuring this to be another waste of his time. He completely overlooked the fear struck looks on every girl's face.

"What is it now?" he asked while looking down at Sasuke, to which he too noticed the problem. Blinking in surprise, the Chunin dropped to his knees and stared right into the boy's gaze searchingly.

It took the rest of the class and Mizuki a while to notice, but when it eventually clicked the sight had everybody thunderstruck.

Sasuke was standing in the exact same spot in the exact same pose not because he was trying to act cool, tough or empowering like he unconsciously did, but because he was out cold. The boy's face was frozen in a look of dazed disbelief and, not only did he have a trickle of blood running down from his nose, but his right eye was swollen shut. The instructor was astonished that he didn't notice it sooner and quickly began performing medical checks to see if he was okay.

Concern increasing by the second, Iruka waved a hand in front of the raven haired boy's face from left to right, attempting to coax some sort of responses out of him. He then clicked his fingers several times and upon receiving zero life signs in that manner, checked for a pulse.

"Holy crap…" Iruka murmured, ignoring the whimpers and worried comments being made by the students now crowding behind him. _"Naruto didn't want to fight anymore because he was bored; he stopped because he realized his opponent was out on his feet… and from ONE punch!" _With this in mind, Iruka's head snapped in the direction Naruto had walked off in and, though he had nothing but the best of intentions in letting the jinchuriki know of his astonishing win, stopped short when he remembered he was already long gone.

The instructor's expression then dropped considerably more when he also remembered what he'd said to him just minutes ago.

"_Damn it,"_ Iruka groaned and grabbed his chin. Yup, he knew he screwed up this time. In all good conscience he felt like kicking the shit out of himself for not seeing it sooner and instead acted out irrationally. "_Naruto wasn't dancing around his opponent to draw attention to himself; he was trying to wind him up and tire him out. After getting Sasuke to chase him around and burn up his stamina, he would then hit him when he was weakened and too exhausted to react in time to counter. He was biding time, fighting smart and moving evasively, waiting for the right moment to strike."_

The fact that he yelled at the boy and threatened him with failure had he continued jumping around the way he had been only had Naruto hasten the process of his victory. Though he didn't carry it out the way he probably wanted to, the jinchuriki was still able to succeed, and what a win it was. Sasuke probably didn't even see the attack coming or realized exactly what it was that hit him until after he had lost consciousness.

That was an incredibly terrifying thought.

After a few minutes of Iruka stressing over how he responded to Naruto's approach in his fight and female students making a fuss over the condition of their Sasuke-kun, the boy in question suddenly awoke from his dazed state of oblivion with a shout of terror. Students and teachers alike jumped back in shock when the Uchiha stumbled out of his reverie, waving his hands in front of him like he was trying to ward off flies or punches before stopping altogether.

Panting and looking around at the bewildered faces surrounding him in paranoia, Sasuke gulped deeply and asked the question that pretty much had everybody scratching their heads, "W-What just happened?"

Kiba gaped at the Uchiha, "That's… kind of what we'd like to know, pal…"

OOO

**Two hours later…**

Naruto, frustrated and irked from his shambles of an academy lesson, decided to take a hike outside of the village's suburbs and cool off the best way he knew how; by beating the crap out of random inanimate objects. Fortunately enough, instead of taking his wrath out on the village streets or the villagers themselves, he opted to head out into the woods to kick some tree logs and boulders around. There were plenty out in Konoha's forests, so what harm was there in knocking in a few extra hours of training to relieve the tension?

The taijutsu portion of the day for him had been way too unsatisfying. Being the battery pack that he was Naruto needed a proper outlet. He was still burning adrenaline like crazy on top of the fuel stemming from his disappointment, and he needed to flush it all out as quickly as possible. So, hashing together some massive tree logs to create pendulum traps, he started off the first hour ducking, dodging and swaying between five simultaneously swinging tree trunks blindfolded. Doing this with eyes covered in a heavily wooded area was one of the many ways he was able to increase his flexibility and sense of timing, which was damn near close to inhuman already.

There was a boatload of other shit he did in his free time as well, but he wanted to space those exercises out as much as possible.

Following a grueling session of avoiding falling logs with the potential to crush him should he get hit, he then moved on to heavy lifting and hitting the posts. Really, he was doing anything he could to get his muscles to work since his fight against Sasuke didn't. Though he did admit there was a time he had once been on the ass end of an ass-kicking from a lot of the students including the Uchiha, this all happened before he realized he needed to be smarter and more creative when it came to fighting. How the hell was he able to get through all those fights he got into with tough guys on the streets and manage to slip away from Chunin and the occasional Jonin every time they came after him?

By being just as unpredictable as he was creative, that's how. He was a very flexible character so it was no surprise.

Anyway, after managing to work up a sweat and getting his knuckles filed against a post to a satisfying degree, Naruto then took to the forest to follow-up on one of his other favorite pastimes; foraging. Though he didn't seem like the type, as of late it has become one of the jinchuriki's many acts of habit.

After making friends with much of the wildlife surrounding his village and getting to know the 'ways of the woods', Naruto had been able to absorb more skills and knowledge in the forests then he had been able to in all his time spent at the academy, mostly for a fact that what he did was actually fun. Iruka was all talk and theory in his lessons. The jinchuriki was more of a hands-on approach kind of guy. The amount of free time he was able to spend with the monkey tribes and animals of Konoha's lands taught him many things; like a lot of the moves he used in his freestyle taijutsu style, how to survive with nothing at all, what plants were good for eating, what weren't, what things could kill you, what things could save your life, and by extension the ability to talk to a lot of creatures that hadn't developed the ability to commune through human speech.

Naruto knew where to go when he was in trouble, he knew how to make makeshift homes, he knew how to hide, how to run, how to swing, how to climb, how to use his feet as hands, basically anything a wild animal could do. This also explained his extraordinary fighting sense, incredible high level of timing, speed and body strength.

Believe it. He had built up A LOT of body strength over the years hanging with the monkeys.

But he didn't use it as excess. All he required were outlets, one of the many being the serene practice of digging through the brush and finding the most delicious items of forest grub he could get his hands on.

Yup. When not gorging on ramen back home, he was trying to make his own, which was always great.

Weaving himself a bag from long grass, leaves and vines, Naruto began a long walkabout of the thickest part of the woods. Scurrying up trees, digging through bushes, searching crevasses, he left no stone unturned in his search for the best things the natural world could provide. Within half an hour he was able to grab a whole sack full of stuff, even some rare goodies he was sure would sell for a good price back home. But he wasn't interested in money. All he wanted was a distraction and a way to cool off from his displeasing lesson back at school. The almost secondary natural act of scavenging made him forget all about his troubles in the village and brought a smile to his face.

However, while he was picking mushrooms from a wide clearing and humming a pleasant tune, the blonde suddenly noticed further up the hillside something out of place. Depositing what he had in his hands into his basket, he left it on the ground where it was and went over to the area in question to check out.

What Naruto found up the path was a ruined patch of land scarred from what could only be described as an intense battle. There were craters punched all over the place, chunks blasted out of trees, gashes and scars carved into the land and wood, and scorch marks burned here and there. There was also traces of blood; never a good sign.

Perplexed, the jinchuriki ran a hand over a particularly large scar in a tree before noticing some weapons deposited across the clearing.

"_A fight… between enemy shinobi?"_ Naruto wondered, before spotting something else higher up above him.

It was hidden conspicuously so that only a shinobi would notice, but it was clearly there. The sun pretty much silhouetted it. Up in a bird's nest a couple stories above the ground, the blonde spotted a kunai sticking out from the twigs, refracting the sun's rays when it tried to pass through it and cast a shadow across the area. Naruto quickly hopped up to the canopy and carefully pulled the blade out, making sure the eggs were okay before jumping back down.

"_That's an odd place to put something."_ It was an odd knife, not like any of Konoha's weapons, with a slight curve to its blade and an extra prong protruding from the cutting edge, ideal for shaving through enemies. He also noticed there was a piece of paper tied around the handle. It wasn't a paper bomb or anything like that. That much was made clear to him when he didn't pick up any specific markings or powders, or that it was big enough to be an explosive. It didn't detonate on contact either.

This was something else.

Before he could make heads-or-tails with what had gone on around here though, Naruto suddenly detected a disturbance on the wind and crouched low in the center of the clearing. His instincts kick starting at the sound of approaching danger, his gaze hardened and he placed a hand on the floor so that he could get a bead on the infiltrators.

The vibrations gave him all the Intel he needed. _"There's someone here. No… three people?"_

The instant he realized this, two shadows suddenly dropped down from the treetops on either side of him at a distance. The individuals then rushed at him from his left and right, attempting to blindside the boy with their speed and get him in a simultaneous attack on the first move.

Already aware of their presence, Naruto pocketed the knife, sprang to his feet and dashed at the one coming from his right. He met the attacker halfway who made to jump at him and strike from up high, but the blonde anticipated this move and slid under, slamming both hands into their lower and upper body and tossing them over when they failed to react to a counter. The act of throwing said attacker sent the person hurling into the other, who was also jumping to attack but ended up having their partner crash into them.

The impact sent both of them flying back, but they quickly recovered and separated, back-flipping before landing in crouched stances. The moment they landed they dashed in and attacked simultaneously. A surprised Naruto started ducking and weaving as they assaulted him one after the other, aiming to bring him down with low and high blows, punches and kicks. "Whoa! Yikes! Hey… w-what… geez!" The jinchuriki danced between them, using swaying and evasive maneuvers he had previously used against Sasuke to avoid the duel fighters before allowing them to fly passed him and fall back. He too leapt away in a hasty retreat, hands hanging at his sides as he locked his best hostile glare onto them.

The two masked attackers put distance between them and their target, one taking up position behind the other, with the individual up front on their feet and glaring across at the boy.

"This is no ordinary brat!" the head attacker exclaimed, before both of them drew their swords from their backs. The blades flashed under the sun, alerting Naruto to the change in the fight's nature as well as an increase in danger.

It was during the stand-off the jinchuriki was able to take quick stock of their appearances as well as their abilities thus far. They both fought well in conjunction with the other, using speed, tenacity and coordination honed from years of experience. This made them a big threat. As for their outlooks, the one ahead of him was about half his body taller, same as the person backing them up. The two of them also wore dark shirts, trousers, sandals, gloves, and dark grey, figure-hugging body vests similar to an ANBU's. They also carried swords and had black fabric masks covering their faces, keeping their identities secret. The only way you could tell them apart was that one had short light brown hair and the other had shoulder-length dark brown hair, almost maroon in comparison to the other.

There was one other thing Naruto came to the awareness of.

The blonde blinked as he glared up at them. "You two are girls?" The way their shoulders twitched gave him his answer. He lowered his stance and glanced between them harshly. "Kunoichi, huh?. I guess I can safely say that you're not from this village either."

A light thump behind him followed by fast approaching footsteps cut Naruto short from his interrogation. Not a smart thing to do when in a fight but he wanted answers, and his little Q&A session didn't stop him from responding to the sneak attack, in which he back-flipped right over another masked kunoichi lunging at him from behind. He kicked off of the back of their head and sent them stumbling forward, allowing him to make a greater leap and land further away from the enemy.

When he did and set himself in a crouched position, he glared up to see all three enemy shinobi up on their feet and staring at him. It was kind of a creepy sight with all of them wearing masks where only their eyes were visible.

"A party of three, though I would have preferred one," Naruto grumbled, looking at the previous two before focusing on the newcomer, who had short silver and grey hair to match her mask. "Who are you and what the hell are you doing skulking around these woods?"

They were blunt questions sure, ones he knew he wasn't going to get answers to so easily but was still compelled to ask. It wasn't like he was getting defensive about 'his' territory exactly, the problem was much bigger than that. So, instead of bitching about the odds Naruto decided to step back a little for more space, noticing in that split instance the eyes of the silver haired kunoichi glance towards his pocket before looking back towards him.

It was thanks to that subtle lapse in attention that the blonde was able to discern what this team of enemy kunoichi was really after, which had him smirk deviously.

"So you're after the kunai? It must be pretty important for you to be trying to kill a scrappy young kid just to get your hands on it." He saw the trio flinch, which caused his smirk to unconsciously widen. "Too bad. I've got it and I ain't giving it back."

The woman with the silver hair grunted. "Stupid boy. Hand over the weapon and we'll let you go. If you don't, then we'll _make_ you give it to us."

Naruto shook his head. "You know I hate it when people don't say the magic word. But as much as I'd like to talk about proper manners with you and stuff, I'd rather rip off those masks so I can get a good look at your faces!" Throwing his right hand up, he then tossed a pellet into the ground. The ball detonated and filled the air with a thick white smoke, blocking him completely from view.

The three kunoichi backed up a little in surprise and began scanning the area for any signs of movement. Since he was just one child against a squad of full-grown ninja he was either trying to make a break for it or was swinging around the side to get behind them, which had all of them on their toes and ready for pursuit.

But of course, while others with any level, straight-forward thinking would have normally ran for the hills when the odds were stacked against them, according to article one of the shinobi handbook the advantage always fell toward the combatant who could get the drop on their targets first, and that one in this instance just happened to be Naruto. With the kunoichis' attention so utterly focused on the areas of the woods further out, they didn't expect for the jinchuriki to suddenly come sprinting out of a nearby bush to the leader's right and nail one of the masked kunoichi right across the face, which he did.

The brown haired ninja had no idea what hit her until she was smashed in the face by her pintsized attacker and sent careening into the back of her partner.

Naruto dashed right passed the group when the rearguard was bowled over and jumped straight into a tree, the silver haired kunoichi spinning around and tossing a barrage of shuriken after him in response. The weapons thumped against the trunk when he swung around it and returned fire from the other side, letting loose his own barrage.

The leader of the three drew her sword and smacked away the five projectiles effortlessly, before tossing a couple of kunai up at him. The blonde however took to the canopy and vanished, the knives hitting the branches obstructing his person. The last one thrown hit a branch higher up in the leaves, where the paper bomb wrapped around the handle ignited and detonated, knocking the canopy about with a staggering shockwave and setting the whole area ablaze.

Forest came raining down in ashes, splinters and cinders, leaving the kunoichi down below looking up towards the tops in frustration.

"Fucking brat!" the leader growled, her head snapping left and right in search of their quarry. "Where did he go?" She looked back down at her comrades, one of them rubbing the side of their face from the little fist that went plowing across it, which also tore her mask open. The fair-faced kunoichi expressed her annoyance visually and also turned toward the burning canopy, ripping away the remains of her ruined covering. "I don't care what it takes! Get that kunai!"

All of a sudden, before they could completely recover from the sneak attack, the bush on the forest floor directly behind the silver haired kunoichi burst outwards and the quick on his toes academy student came sprinting out from a new position. The woman heard the disturbance and spun around, but was met with a face full of paint when the kid threw his right hand across and fired off pellets from the brace on his wrist.

It was a new edition he had recently added to the device for his escapades inside the village and while it seemed like a waste of time, it was pretty damn effective as a supplementary tool designed with a lot of spread.

The insignificant projectiles exploded across the leader and, not only did it repaint her outfit in an interesting blend of colors but also blinded her when the spray got through the eye line in her covering.

Staggering back in surprise, the woman moved to clear the blockage, only to feel a sharp sting hit her side that caused her to collapse to the ground. Grabbing her waist, she looked down to see a kunai buried part way into her midriff, thankfully protected by her body armor. This didn't stop her mental response though, which came in the form of a low growl and a swivel when she glared after the child, who managed to disappear into the bushes once again.

"KILL HIM!" the leader kunoichi roared to her subordinates, who obeyed instantaneously.

They tossed kunai and shuriken in their dozens into the undergrowth, toward the area where there target had disappeared. Realizing they were hitting nothing the leader ripped the mask off of her face as well as the kunai in her side and rose to her feet, showing just how pissed off she was.

This kid was good. Not just that, he was crafty and quick; not something you'd find so easily in your everyday neighborhood. He was deceptively good. Clearly he'd done this kind of crap many times before and knew this terrain well. Just what the hell was he?

"_He's running circles around us in the shadows while we're exposed out here in the clearing! What a clever little punk," _the boss thought before rounding on her teammates. "Into the trees! Don't let him box us in!" With that command given they immediately leapt towards the upper branches, only to get a very nasty surprise.

From the bushes the hidden Naruto began firing more pellets up at them, nailing the exposed ones in the face with shocking accuracy and hitting the only masked one left all over her body from toe to head in that exact order. Though they were paintballs and shouldn't have hurt, it definitely threw them off their game. A stunning barrage of well-aimed hits knocked all three of them out of the air and, while her teammates crashed back down to the forest floor, the leader was able to keep her footing and continue leaping up towards the canopy.

"Damn it! Where is he?"

Looking towards the ground, the team leader tried to locate the hidden assailant before she suddenly saw leaves fall passed her. She looked up in puzzlement, only to get tackled by the jinchuriki dropping down on her from above and straddling her chest. The force he hit her with sent both of them plummeting back toward level zero, with Naruto taking his time ramming hooks across the startled kunoichi's face one after the other. Though she attempted to guard, the blows he plowed into her still managed to rattle her.

The blonde cheered as they crashed through the branches on their way down one after the other, yelling out with each hit, "BEST! RIDE! EVER!"

They slammed into the forest floor seconds later. Well… the kunoichi did. The woman gave out a sharp cough when she was slammed into the earth at full speed despite the branches breaking her fall, with Naruto jumping off of her like a springboard and back into the trees. He hooked his leg around a high branch and hung off of it, grinning down at the fallen trio now struggling back up a couple stories below.

"This is totally cool! I've never been in a real shinobi fight before!" Naruto exclaimed almost enjoyably, watching the woman glare up at him with blind fury. "This will be an awesome story to tell the others when I get back to the academy!"

"Don't screw with us you little shit!" the unmasked subordinate shouted before flipping through hand seals. _**"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!"**_ The woman then breathed out a massive ball of fire and sent it rocketing towards the boy, burning through branches at breakneck speed.

The blonde gave a started yell and dove away. "Whoa! That's hot!" he shouted, disappearing around the other side of the tree he was dangling off so that the sphere of flames slammed into it instead of him, ripping into the side before engulfing everything in a great inferno. This attack was many times bigger than the explosive tag used against him earlier and carried much more force, tearing up the tree and sending its top-half collapsing to the forest floor, bathed in flames.

Though this put their objective at risk, at least it satisfied the kunoichi knowing they were able to scare the living daylights out of the kid. Hopefully they managed to actually get him with that one too.

However, just as the three women were beginning to wonder how they were going to pluck the kid out from under the burning wreckage of the tree, there was suddenly a loud tap that echoed out from the woods behind them followed shortly by a holler that caught the attention of the only masked kunoichi left. She spun around with her sword swinging, only to be met with the unexpected sight of-

"CROTCH!" Naruto shouted, slamming into the woman's face and wrapping his legs around her. Twisting sharply and diving right, he tossed the startled woman over and straight into her partner, knocking both of them to the ground for the third time in a row. The leader was quick to respond when she looked over to see the boy crouched down on the ground, grinning up at them.

"Nuisance!" she shouted, throwing a barrage of shuriken at him and flipping through hand seals. _**"Gen'ei Tajū Shuriken!"**_ The projectiles she tossed seemingly multiplied in mid-flight, filling the air with a cloud of metal stars that charged the crouched blonde down.

Naruto stood upright, being peppered by the first wave that caused his body to go up in a puff of smoke, which parted moments later to reveal a log. When the log fell to the ground the real one came darting out from behind it, zigzagging between the waves of projectiles at high speed while approaching the leader kunoichi, who continued tossing shuriken his way.

Using his fleeted movements the blonde managed to rush right into his opponent's reach and leapt at her with a kunai in hand. The woman responded immediately by slashing out at him with her sword, slicing him in half. For a second time his body burst into a puff of smoke and was replaced by a massive log, which was cleaved in two.

With the replacement blocking her view ahead of her, the woman immediately suspected attack from a blind spot. "Above!" she said while looking up in alarm. Seeing nothing, she looked left and right, before her eyes dropped straight down. "BELOW!" Before she could respond, the orange blur of her opponent suddenly slid right between her legs, his fist smacking her behind the knee and dropping her like a stone.

Yelping, the kunoichi hit the ground on all fours but she recovered shortly thereafter, throwing herself back onto her feet and spinning around to see her target perched on a boulder not too far from her position. He was looking at her rather strangely.

"You're quick for a runt," the leader complimented with a smirk, bringing her sword back up into an offensive stance. "But don't think I'll be sparing you because of that. In the grand scheme of things nothing you do has the least bit of significance. You're just worthless trash." Her companions had managed to pull themselves to their feet too, and after a few seconds of recovery were once again behind her and at her defense.

Blinking curiously, Naruto then held up his right hand, bringing forward a rather peculiar item which he dangled before his three-person audience. "That's quite a lot of weight to be carrying around with you… though you can't really tell through that vest you're wearing."

The three women scrutinized the article the boy was holding, which they quickly identified to be a light green bra with lace. The team leader's subordinates blinked in surprise, before the leader herself realized what must have happened and, with her face turning bright red and her arms snapping over her chest, she let out a shriek and dropped to her knees.

She wasn't wearing any panties either…

Which were being held in Naruto's other hand when he brought it into view too. He stretched the upper body garment between both and looked at it strangely. "Man… you have a really weird taste in fashion. This crummy color doesn't suit you at all."

"Y-YOU FUCKING PERVERT! GIVE ME BACK MY UNDERWEAR!" the leader screamed, her cheeks glowing at this point. How the hell did he manage to get his hands on her unmentionables without removing any of her clothing? That's what all three kunoichi wanted to know right now when they all glared back up at him.

Was it some kind of jutsu? What the hell kind of joke was this?

Naruto grinned and began twirling the items on his finger provocatively. "Wondering how I got em? Well… I ain't telling you ladies squat. Trade secret. Use your imagination."

"You punk!" the last masked kunoichi shouted while ripping off her face covering. Tossing it aside, she slapped her hands together to form a hand seal. "You'll burn for this! _**Katon-"**_

"THINK FAST!" Naruto interrupted, tossing his right hand across and firing off several more projectiles with a sleight-of-hand draw. He nailed all three of them in the bodies with pellets, but instead of using paintballs or anything of the sort, the supplementary weapons he threw turned out to be soft balls covered with some sort of powder very similar to flour.

The fabric-wrapped balls thudded against the three kunoichi continuously, with the boy ditching more and more at them with use of both hands. The women cried out in surprise as they were peppered mercilessly, the projectiles clouding the airspace around them in fine powder until the onslaught stopped. Coughing and waving away the fumes, the kunoichi quickly glared back up at the child to see him still perched on his rock, grinning wildly.

"Infantile pest!" The leader shouted, all three of them rising to their feet and forming hand seals in perfect sync with each other. "We didn't take you seriously enough; a mistake we won't be repeating twice. There's no way you can match three Chunin at once!"

"I beg to differ," Naruto exclaimed cheekily while still holding onto the leader's undergarments. "I outsmart and outrun the Chunin of _my_ village on a daily basis. You guys are no different."

"We'll see about that!" the silver haired woman shouted, the trio finishing flipping through seals before all of them inhaled sharply._** "Katon Renkeijutsu: Karura!"**_ The team then exhaled at once, the flames of their jutsu spewing forth from their lips-

Before the powder around their faces suddenly ignited and, before their combination technique could even gain traction, their bodies caught fire simultaneously. All three kunoichi cried out in shock and then agony when their forms exploded into flames and they all started running circles around the clearing. In the midst of their panic they dropped to the ground and started to roll excessively in an attempt to put the fires out. They were miserably unsuccessful, yet kept on trying to put out the heat.

After watching them cook for a moment with a sense of satisfaction, Naruto then hopped off of his rock and rushed over to them. Grabbing clumps of dirt, he tossed it over them in heaps, covering them and patting over their bodies quickly to put the flames out. Within seconds he was able to extinguish all of them, leaving three very crisply burnt yet still attractive looking kunoichi smoldering on the ground in a daze.

Gasping from the pain and the shock at lighting up so unexpectedly, the wounded, silver haired kunoichi shakily looked up at the blonde haired boy leaning over her, where she met his curious gaze eye to eye. She trembled in all manner of the word, gaze widening and fear being reflected clearing in her irises at being confronted by the 'monster.'

She was completely at his mercy now.

"W-W-What the hell… did you do to us?"

Naruto smiled. "That wasn't ordinary powder I was pelting you three with… it was phosphorous. Highly flammable." He held up one of the soft balls in question and squeezed it several times. "After seeing your first attack I realized you guys used quite a lot of _Fire Release_ techniques, so I gambled on you using one against me to try and put me out if I messed with you enough. Guess that means I win…"

The leader gritted her teeth in frustration, but upon realizing who she had lost to and not knowing a thing about him, she grinned. "Who… or what… are you?"

Naruto smiled proudly. "The resident prankster: Uzumaki Naruto. Nice to meet you."

He then clenched the fist he was holding the ball with and punched her in the face with full force, knocking her out…

OOO

**Half an hour later…**

A little while after the battle was over _Konohagakure_ shinobi finally arrived at the scene, with all intent and purpose of stopping whatever it was that had been going on all the way out here. The squad of course sent to investigate the area was made up of Izumo, Kotetsu, team leader Kakashi, and surprisingly Iruka, who had volunteered onto the group in his search for Naruto, whom he'd learned was somewhere out here in the woods.

When they stumbled upon the ruined battlefield, the squad was quick to discover a much unexpected surprise.

Three kunoichi from an unknown village were tied up and propped up against a tree, all of them knocked unconscious and looking absolutely barbequed. Not so much that they were burned black or anything like that, but the damage they had received from whatever scuffle they had gotten into was still quite prominent. They had frazzled hair and everything.

The four Konoha shinobi were left scratching their heads and looking around peculiarly for the next few seconds trying to figure out who could have done this… until they heard a very familiar giggle from above.

When they looked up the group saw a very happy and amused Naruto hanging upside-down from a branch, swinging back and forth along with a bachelor of male gibbons who had also come around to investigate. The blonde laughed when he saw the back-up turn their attention to him and waved. "Hey guys! Pretty cool, huh?"

"Hey, isn't that?" Kotetsu began to ask while elbowing his partner in the arm.

"Yeah. No question," Izumo replied, a small smile appearing on his face.

Kakashi blinked when he saw Naruto swing back into an upright position, before dropping down from the canopy to land directly on a branch above the three unconscious kunoichi. The boy grinned at the familiar faces, and then towards the rather unfamiliar face of Kakashi Hatake.

"So you're the 'reinforcements'?" the jinchuriki murmured, rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish smile. "Well, sorry for hogging all of the fun but these three are already beaten."

"Did you do this all by yourself, Naruto?" Iruka asked in shock, pointing down at the prisoners all parceled up and ready for processing.

"Of course," Naruto nodded affirmatively, hopping down to land in front of his former opponents. "Who else would be out here other than me? It was a piece of cake anyway. These kunoichi have obviously never faced the machinations of Uzumaki Naruto before." He said that with a great deal of delight. As the four shinobi in front of him started to smile and look towards each other over the matter of this astonishing victory, Naruto suddenly pulled out of his pocket three sets of women's underwear which he then had hanging in front of him innocently for all to see. "By the way, can I keep these as souvenirs? I bet they'll look great on my wall next to my kunai collection."

The three Chunin and the one Jonin stared at the articles of clothing curiously, wondering for the next few seconds where the boy could have possibly gotten women's underwear from in these woods. But then they remembered… there were three tied-up and thoroughly defeated Chunin kunoichi sitting behind him, which immediately had heads turning as to what exactly had been going on here while they were absent from the scene.

Kakashi pointed lazily at Naruto's 'trophies'.

"Those are…"

"Ah, I'm not gonna keep em," Naruto replied while tossing them over his shoulder so that they landed over the three dazed bodies. "I wouldn't even know what to do with them. Anyway, here they are." He stepped aside and gestured grandly towards the threesome. "One team of enemy spies; beaten, burned and ready for postage. That will be a two ryo service charge." To the Chunin's humor he held out his hand rather expectantly.

With the matter of the underwear set aside for the time being, Kakashi and Kotetsu waddled over to the tree and collected the enemies. Slinging them over their shoulders along with their valuables, the Jonin then turned toward Naruto with his usual unreadable expression, after which he then nodded to the youngster in acknowledgement.

"Great work, Naruto," the silver haired man exclaimed while giving him his trademark eye smile. "I'm looking forward to the day you graduate from the academy." With that said, Kakashi then shot up into the trees, quickly followed by both Izumo and Kotetsu, who also nodded a pleasant farewell to the blonde. This pretty much left Iruka and his troublesome student standing in the woods to wrap things up.

When they turned to face each other, Naruto quickly remembered the whole reason why he was out here in the first place and turned away with an upset frown. The instructor knew he wasn't going to get off from his previous actions so easily and, smiling pleasantly, approached the youngster and patted him on the head. He was obviously still sore from the lesson today and was expressing it the most suitable way he knew how.

Through use of the cold shoulder.

Iruka sighed. "Naruto… I'm sorry." The jinchuriki glanced up at him, which allowed the older man to beam at him proudly. "It was stupid of me to misjudge your tactics during your spar with Sasuke. It didn't occur to me that you were probably trying to avoid a direct confrontation with your opponent in order to tire him out first and… well… I shouldn't have snapped the way I did. I guess I'd fallen into the habit of scolding you whenever you do something reckless or irresponsible, even during a proper evaluation. But what I said and how I said it was thoughtless and uncalled for, and I realized I must have upset you. Can you forgive me?"

Giving a moment of pause, Naruto mulled the question over in his head for a bit. After a tense few seconds the blonde smiled a small one and turned towards his homeroom instructor.

"Teachers are supposed to be strict with their students, right, sensei?" Naruto asked, remembering the time Iruka said he was going to be more firm with him after one of his more troublesome pranks on the school months ago. Ah, that was a great day… for him anyway.

Iruka smirked, "Yeah, but not insensitive. I know I'm supposed to be tough on you whenever you misbehave, and disciplined as well as thorough when it comes to your education. Though you didn't fight how I taught you in class or how the scrolls instructed you to, you came up with your own way of fighting your opponents and it worked beautifully." He chuckled when he looked around the scorched battlefield. "I can see your strange tactics served you well out here. You managed to fend off three enemy kunoichi, all Chunin in rank, and you were able to beat them swiftly and decisively with no damage done to you whatsoever. Only a really strong-minded Genin or a shinobi with a higher skill set could have possibly pulled something like this off. I guess you could say your mischief saved both your life and your village today."

"Yeah, I guess it did." Even though he was supposed to be feeling happy, Naruto couldn't help but still feel a little bit disappointed as he kicked at the ground, earning a puzzled look from his teacher. "Still, it sucks that all I know how to do is fight, use the henge and kawarimi. I wanted to use the bunshin no jutsu to mess with them as well, but I couldn't because I can't." He looked away glumly. "I don't think I'll be able to graduate without it. You said it was pretty important."

Hearing him say that had Iruka smile a bit. Of course his worries were within reason. Though he didn't look it Naruto did try hard to learn and perform everything he was taught. Even if it didn't show on paper, the boy definitely possessed skills that made him exceptional in the field of a shinobi. Today was a perfect example of this. He wasn't just able to run rings around the genius Sasuke back in the academy, who had never lost in taijutsu to anyone before, but he was also able to outwit three Chunin at once.

This was common in Konoha. Whenever he pulled pranks with the intention of being seen, Chunin, hell, not even Jonin were able to catch him.

His creativeness, unpredictability and experience in pulling fast ones over his hometown really bled well into his potential talent as a shinobi. This was saying something.

Though the bunshin no jutsu was indeed a core topic that ninja definitely needed to learn in order to graduate, Iruka remembered that there were a few exceptions to this rule. This allowed him to come to a suitable conclusion he hoped would not only cheer the jinchuriki up from his sulking, but also satisfy both parties when the day finally arrived where they all inevitably had to move on.

The man cleared his throat to draw Naruto's attention to him again. "Of course the skills you take in from the academy are definitely important and necessary in order for you to graduate and become a Genin. It would be awfully irresponsible of me to let students without the proper training or skills needed to survive to simply waltz out of the academy with a headband over the heads. That would make me a terrible teacher." He saw the jinchuriki's intent expression drop, which had him chuckle. He placed his hand on the boy's shoulder and got him to look at him again. "But if I am able to see that they do possess the right qualities and abilities to survive out there in the real world, than it would be terribly irresponsible of me to _not_ allow them to graduate."

Naruto's eyes widened, "Y-You mean…?"

Iruka grinned and squeezed the boy's arm reassuringly. "You have shown me a lot today, Naruto. You showed me that you could fight and think outside of the box, that you could muster incredible strength and speed whenever you wanted to, and that you could defeat an opponent several times more experienced than yourself. On top of that, you did this all without use of the bunshin no jutsu." He removed his hand from his shoulder and folded his arms. "I tell you what, in order to make up for your poor test results and inability to use the bunshin no jutsu, if you can master another jutsu by the time of your final exams, than I will forgo the bunshin test and allow you to graduate. How does that sound?"

His expression lighting up, Naruto leapt at the opportunity presented to him and cheered excitedly. "Seriously, Iruka-sensei?"

"It's my way of saying 'good job', Naruto," the man replied with a short laugh. "I _am_ your homeroom teacher after all. I don't have to be strict and firm with you all the time like some grumpy old drill sergeant. I _can_ be fair and supportive too, you know."

The boy let out a laugh and held his fist out to the man in declaration. "I promise you, sensei, I won't let you down! I will master the best, most awesome jutsu I can and show it to you before my final exams at the academy, dattebayo!"

Iruka grinned when the boy suddenly tackled him with a hug, which he returned with the same enthusiasm. He then looked up towards the battlefield and glanced around, inspecting the damage and coming up with a rough mental picture of what must have happened out here. Though he was sure to get more detail about this from his student, what he was really looking forward to was how this child was going to impress him later in the future.

As troublesome as he was at times, there was no doubt in the man's mind that Naruto was going to be a big name one day in the world of shinobi. He could see it now.

"_I wonder how things will go from here,"_ Iruka thought quietly to himself, before proceeding to lead his student out of the woods and back toward the village. Making sure to stop for his basket of goodies, Naruto was then led back to the academy so that the Chunin could reassess his student's performance officially…

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	2. The Growth of Technique

**NARUTO**

**Drifting**

_The Growth of Technique_

"Jutsu… jutsu… what kind of jutsu?" Naruto murmured to himself at his desk as he bit at the tip of the spoon he was holding. He gritted his teeth together in frustration when his mind drew up the same list of problems over and over again, "Man… how can picking a jutsu to learn be so hard? Did oji-san and everybody else have the same problem, or is it just me?"

For the better part of the month since his fight in the woods with the three kunoichi, Naruto had been doing everything in his power to come up with a sort of fail-safe project he could develop in time for his graduation to Genin. As it turned out, the group of three Chunin he ended up engaging had been involved in a scuffle a few days earlier in which their team leader had been killed getting Intel on Konohagakure's defenses and patrol routes, and had written it all down on the piece of paper which he'd found wrapped around a kunai in a bird's nest. The team leader had hidden it there for her squad to find before her life was inevitably forfeited while they were hiding from the search parties sent after them, but Naruto managed to get to it first and foiled them with the same tactics he used to mess with the shinobi of his village.

He was pretty sure a Genin of similar skill or even Sasuke would have been able to nail those three. The kunoichi weren't that great a force. This made Naruto believe that the quality of shinobi in the world must have really gone down a peg in the past few years; particularly after all of the gallant tales he'd heard about in his history lessons. That or he was just too slippery an opponent to deal with.

Anyway, after receiving a pat on the back from the Third for saving his village from certain invasion and a lecture from Iruka, Naruto was determined now more than ever to get this agreement he'd worked out with his homeroom teacher on a roll. Should his attempts to produce at least one clone with the _Bunshin no Jutsu_ yield no results, he needed to have another technique in the wet works to show to his sensei that he was indeed ready to become a shinobi.

Sure, the research and listings were easy. The problem now was deciding what kind of jutsu was best suited for him.

With all of his time at the beginning and ends of each day spent either training or brainstorming, this meant he had very little free period for anything else. After a particularly exhausting Saturday, Naruto had decided to break away from his exercises and assignments to work on one of his other personal projects to clear his head. He was currently trying to perfect the formula for his new firework pellet; an explosive with a colorful kick to it that didn't just leave damage but also emitted blinding flashes and sparklers that did even _**more**_ damage.

Once it was completed Naruto knew it was going to be sweet once he tried it out on something… or someone.

With his goggles pulled down over his eyes, the jinchuriki pulled the spoon out of his mouth and went back to work.

"Ah, I'll figure out the name of the jutsu later. All I want is for it to be a _big one_," the jinchuriki said excitedly, using his utensil to measure the amount of powders he had. With the canister for the self-propelled explosive laid out on the table of his living room, it almost looked like he was running some sort of shady drug experiment since he had all these science gimmicks lying all over the place. It was almost comical how focused he was on the thing.

It was good to know that he had a substantial amount of experience in this area and knew exactly what he needed to do; otherwise he'd be more concerned for his own safety than he was. It was a big ass bomb after all.

Naruto continued his rampant of audible thoughts while mixing the deadly cocktail between the vials.

"I want something flashy. Not like a blazing fireball jutsu like that idiot Sasuke's, bleh," Naruto shook his head while tapping the contents of the tube he was holding up in front of him. "It's too much burning and not enough bang. I want a jutsu that can blow people away! Something that can make people's hair stand on end! But what?"

His ideal jutsu had to have charisma and needed to be eye-catching, as well as simple enough for him to use… sort of like an explosive tag.

Shrugging his shoulders thoughtfully, Naruto reached out and randomly grabbed a flask of flash powder nearby. Without measuring it, he gently poured the contents into the vial in his other hand. It was about time for the final mix…

…

…

Plop…

Sizzle…

_**BOOM!**_

The entire apartment complex was rocked by a massive explosion. Every single window of Naruto's block was blown out in a horrible flash of blinding light, scattering glass and debris all across the neighborhood. Nearby villagers out and about turned towards the building in shock, many giving out startled yelps at the sight of the discharge. Seconds later, once all the fire and embers had passed, black smoke began pouring out of every opening in the building.

"What was that?" a shop keeper asked while poking his head out of his stand at the side of the road.

His most recent customer, an old woman sporting a hunch and a shawl, also looked towards the building in surprise.

"Oh my, is it new years already?" she murmured curiously.

It made sense as firework sparks were now starting to shoot out the shattered panes and were bursting into colorful flowers above the streets. It was a glorious sight to behold indeed.

Inside the disaster zone though, it was a completely different story.

With fixtures blown out of place, walls and furniture shredded, and every surface area within sight of the center charred a smoking coal black, the once clean experiment had transformed into a real, God-awful mess. And of course sitting in the very heart of the smoldering lounge room, a very surprised looking Naruto sat staring at his now disintegrated workspace.

His entire front burnt black with his back remaining completely untouched, leaving a hilarious outline of him in the soot on the wall behind him, the blonde blinked several times to bring himself back into consciousness. His owlish expression could clearly be seen through his cracked goggles.

The startled Naruto coughed out a plume of smoke.

"Something tells me that that was the wrong ingredient…"

XXX

**Two months later…**

**Early morning…**

And Naruto was still in the midst of a mid-life crisis. His quest to find, learn and master the perfect jutsu other than that retched _Bunshin no Jutsu_ that just continued to fail him was becoming a real Fellowship experience. Normally by this time he would have found tasks like this tiresome, seeing as that he was more of the free-spirited kind of guy that preferred learning this material by hand. In order to put things into practice though, you still needed a significant amount of knowledge and experience backing you up. Hence, he'd started properly attending his classes, which made his teachers happy but made him downright miserable.

There was all that crap Iruka talked about like chakra, control, chakra elements, bloodline nonsense, and stuff that had Naruto drawing blanks on even after reading about it for hours. The amount of stuff taught at school even at his current year level was mind numbing.

All the basics of shinobi techniques were taught at a really young age, with theory basically coming out as dedicated by the seasons, or so it went. Naruto pretty much tossed all that traditional stuff out the window and tried to focus on the bigger picture. All he wanted to do was learn the material he needed to become an amazing shinobi in the future. That was all he had to worry about. It was a thought that stuck with him even in sleep and as he woke up bright and early for another day of training.

Letting out a yawn as he stretched to the morning sun peaking in through the window, Naruto drowsily grabbed his clock, reset it, and then staggered over to his bathroom for his morning grooming. He quickly found himself groaning through a mouthful of suds, at the same time scratching his head over his ongoing problem.

Forget the social issues and failings in the written examinations; he just wanted to learn a jutsu! It wasn't like one was going to come conveniently flying in through the window and land in his lap…

"_How did everyone figure out how to make their own jutsu anyway?"_ Naruto frowned, thinking about the number of techniques that already existed in the village. _"They use chakra to make them, right? To spit fire, create clones, switch places and all that stuff. Ninja control chakra with hand seals, so… if I made some random hand seals and stopped… I could come up with some sort of jutsu for myself… right?"_ It sounded simple enough, and in his mind it actually made a lot of sense.

"_How hard could it be?"_

Who cares what formula he came up with? What mattered right now was the end result!

Deciding to test his theory out he formed the basic hand seal in front of his chest, keeping his toothbrush in his mouth as he concentrated on working his energy. Like with every exercise he'd done in the past he focused on getting a feel for his chakra and chakra flow. This he could accomplish without even thinking about it, which allowed him to steadily slide into the next step.

"_Okay, so if I just focus, I… hey, what the hell is that?"_ Naruto blinked before squinting at the mirror intently.

Thinking he was seeing things he wiped his hand over the glass, just to make sure it wasn't water condensing on the screen and messing up his reflection. When he was certain it wasn't steam that was the problem, his eyes widened and he looked down at his stomach.

"_Huh… never noticed that before."_

Since when did he have an awesome tattoo on his stomach? Wait, scratch that. Looking at it again, it was more like some sort of seal array, similar to the ones Iruka had shown in classes a couple of weeks ago where he was able to conjure stuff out of scrolls. Though they weren't learning how to use summoning seals just yet there had been plenty of beginner's lessons and demonstrations, so Naruto had become at least a little bit familiar with the strange scribbles.

The answer was right there in front of him, or so he thought…

"_A summoning seal…?"_

All he knew was that it was some sort of fuinjutsu, keeping something he didn't know locked up or stored away inside of him. Yeah. That had to be it. What else could it be? If he genuinely had something sealed away inside of him like a sword or something, then it was definitely possible to unlock and bring out whatever it was, just like how Iruka did.

The jinchuriki spared a smirk after running his fingers over the intricate, spider web design across his belly. As complicated as it was to read, he couldn't help but wonder what it was actually for. Was it something special? Was it something awesome?

Oh, now this was just too tempting a mystery to let go on unanswered.

"_Let's see what this weird thing is all about,"_ Naruto exclaimed before slapping his hands together to form a hand seal. _"Alright… so how did Iruka-sensei do that again?"_ Bird, ram and tiger? There had been… how many hand seals? Damn… he couldn't remember. It was all a blur.

Deciding to go with the simplest routine he could scrounge, Naruto flipped through several signs without fault before ending with a tiger seal. Holding his right hand out to his side, he cocked each finger back and took aim at his own gut. With a wide grin in place, he brought his hand around and slapped it against his naked stomach, directly over the center of the complex array.

"_**Summoning Jutsu!"**_

The result was instantaneous: a blinding flash of light, a gust of wind, followed shortly by the air bursting like a bubble directly in front of him, only a thousand times more powerful.

An earth-shattering explosion rocked Naruto's apartment shortly thereafter. Though it wasn't as big, flashy or smoky as the last cataclysm that ended with him cleaning up every last speck of dust, it definitely had the boy reeling. This reaction was so violent in fact that Naruto was thrown clean across his small bathroom and sent spinning through the air before crashing into the wall of his hallway a second later.

Lying in a crumpled, upside-down heap in the corridor, the boy groaned out in agony as he glared back towards his bathroom, where he could see pretty much the results of everything that had happened in that instant. His mirror had shattered, his porcelain sink was blown out of its fixed spot and spraying water everywhere, and all of the items he had inside of the cabinet above had spilled everywhere.

Naruto blinked through a blurry vision, "What… the… hell?"

"_**God damn it! What the fuck is happening up there, brat?!"**_

"Huh?"

Did he just hear a voice?

Quickly rolling back into an upright position, Naruto sat himself on the hard wood of his floor and looked around his apartment. Looking left and right, he saw no person, shadow or any traces of another being's presence standing in his corridor. Nothing. No one. The place was devoid of all life with the exception of him.

Empty.

So who or what the heck was that? It definitely didn't sound like anyone he'd ever heard before and it certainly wasn't an animal. So what phantom entity sent that curse his way?

Scratching his head, Naruto breathed out a sigh after a few more fruitless glances and just stood up.

"Hm… must have been my imagination." Placing his hands on his hips, he then glared distastefully at the crater he had unintentionally blown into his bathroom. "Ah crap… the landlady is going to kill me… again…"

OOO

**Meanwhile…**

Deep inside Naruto's metaphysical being in the chamber reserved only for the imprisoned, something incredibly terrible had taken place.

Or…to be frank, something rather hilarious had occurred.

Having been enjoying a nice, peaceful nap after a descent night's sleep on his jailer's behalf, the Nine-Tailed Fox was suddenly awoken from his slumber by what he could only describe, by every definition of the word, as a vortex. Since natural disasters were an abysmal concept to him, seeing as that he was chiefly responsible for creating most them and not having any done to it in kind, you can imagine it came as an apocalyptic shock to the Kyuubi when he suddenly found himself picked up by an ungodly powerful gust of wind and tossed around inside of its chamber, which had also began undulating violently.

Several seconds of hell later, the fox found itself sprawled up against the side of its prison, upside-down with its ass hanging in the air.

Tails splayed everywhere and a tick-mark on its head, the Kyuubi allowed a low growl to escape its lips as he reconvened with Naruto's point-of-view.

As it turned out, the blonde jackass of an academy student had gone and done something stupid… for the thousandth time in a row. What exactly he had done though was beyond the Kyuubi, but the one thing he was definitely certain about was that he was now royally pissed off.

"_**God damn it… I fucking HATE fuinjutsu!" **_the Kyuubi roared out, swearing an ungodly wrath upon the person who came up with the idea of sealing the tailed-beasts inside of people for a village's personal gain.

Damn him and damn the physics of the art!

OOO

**Hokage Building…**

It had been a really relaxing morning for Hiruzen Sarutobi so far. First a pleasant walk through the garden of his property, followed by breakfast in the village at one of the local diners, and then a walk about the neighborhood itself. Being the outgoing Kage that he was the old man felt he had to soak up as much of the village and its people as he could in the time that he had available to him.

He wasn't getting any younger after all. No one was.

After a relaxing stroll, he then retreated to the top of the _Administrative Building_ of the academy, or better known as the building where the Hokage's office was situated. Up on the roof, the elder stood and looked over the whole of the village as the morning sun lifted high into the sky. He breathed deeply as his body became washed with a gentle breeze and sunlight, and was just getting into the zen of the moment when all of a sudden an electric shock ran through him.

It wasn't a literal feeling but more of a mental jolt which had his eyes snap toward one of the suburban areas of _Konohagakure_. Hiruzen calmly glared out towards the buildings he could see in the distance and scrutinized the region in question.

"_That was an incredibly abnormal spike in chakra. What was that?"_

"Hokage-sama!"

Hearing his title called the old man turned around to see Aoba Yamashiro appear behind him. The man with spiky hair and sunglasses appeared to the Kage kneeling in greeting to his village leader. As respectful as his gesture was, his expression conveyed distress.

"What's wrong?"

"The _Sensor Division_ picked up a massive influx of chakra inside of the village," Aoba stated, looking up towards the Third to see his expression remain unchanged. "It was a gargantuan increase and it's currently still registering above peak. Whatever it is, it's almost comparable to that of the Kyuubi's chakra signature."

"Where is the signal coming from? Have they triangulated its position?" Hiruzen asked, already having a clue as to what the answer was.

"Yes sir," Aoba nodded affirmatively, still in the midst of panic. "Lower residential district, East Side."

"I see…" Hiruzen looked ahead in the direction of the disturbance once more. He knew that area well, as he visited it quite often. The last time he went there was when he was delivering the boy's living expenses for the month, which wasn't that long ago. Perhaps it was time for another check-up. The elder nodded his head in understanding. "Tell all stations to stand down. I'll see to this matter personally."

"Sir?"

"This is a local problem, Aoba. There's no need for the forces to get involved," Hiruzen replied, before suddenly vanishing in a swirl of leaves. His parting words echoed on the wind as he made haste in case there really was something to worry about. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

The Hokage's sudden departure left the messenger kneeling on the rooftop looking a little bit flabbergasted.

OOO

A little while later and a couple miles out from the _Hokage Monument_, after switching off the water main at his apartment to stop the spillover and explaining to the landlady his situation, which earned him a slap over the head from a fan and another warning, Naruto soon found himself shuffling back up to his flat. Dressed in his usual attire, three-quarter green cargo shorts and orange jumper with blue short sleeves and arrow marks on each, the blonde scrubbed the top of his head while mumbling all sorts of complaints under his breath. This somber mood continued as he pushed open the door to his apartment and slipped off his sandals.

"Man… that hurt like hell," he groaned, feeling the bump that had risen from his sudden and violent exit from the bathroom earlier. "Next time I'll get my facts straight before I start slapping my hands over stuff. I don't want to end up summoning some malevolent demon that wants to destroy the entire village by accident. Man… that would be embarrassing."

Yeah, pretty sure it would be more than just embarrassing.

After kicking the door closed and marching into his kitchen, the boy decided that he would warm himself up a nice, hot instant ramen cup to try and rid himself of his head pains and have a comfortable sit-down to mull away his thoughts. This was the exact plan of action he had formed for the beginning of the day the moment he re-entered his kitchen, until he got the shock of a lifetime when he spotted the Third Hokage just standing on the other side of his kitchen table and staring towards him expectantly.

The boy yelped in alarm and leapt back, only to realize seconds later who it was he was looking back at.

"Hokage-jiji?" Naruto gulped, placing a hand over his heart. "Geez, you scared the shit out of me."

"I tend to do that to people from time to time, though it's honestly not my intention," Hiruzen replied with an amused voice while keeping his gaze fixed on the child. "Would you like to have a seat? You look ragged…"

"Oh sure, I'll just… HEY, WAIT A SEC!" Naruto suddenly shouted before pointing accusingly at the elder. "I'M SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONE TO SAY THAT! THIS IS BREAKING AND ENTERING, GRAMPS!"

The Third Hokage chuckled, "Oh is it? My apologies."

"You don't mean that," the blonde sulked, watching the Hokage pull his signature pipe into view and pop it between his lips. The youngster followed him with his eyes as he maneuvered around the table. "So what brings you all the way to my apartment? It can't be allowance day already. Was it something I did?"

"No."

"Seriously. Because if it's got something to do with every single piece of furniture in the academy being stuck to the ceiling, I would like to put forward a plea of innocence," the boy stated firmly and quickly.

"Really?"

"I didn't do it."

"Well isn't that getting straight to the point," Hiruzen murmured observantly as he lit his pipe and turned to face the youngster completely. Allowing his small smile to remain, he looked the jinchuriki over and noticed how stiff his posture was. "Don't worry, boy. I'm not here to bring you in. I'm just here to check to see how you're doing."

"Huh? Really?"

"Yes."

"Oh." Eyes narrowing suspiciously, Naruto looked around his kitchen for a moment to see if anything was out of place. If there was any chance of a bug or an ANBU hiding in the vents, he would know. This was his home after all. He needed to be vigilant. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." There was no hesitation in the old man's voice, nor was there any shift in his expression. Poker faced as usual. Breathing out a plume of smoke, the elder gestured around the room. "Has anything unusual happened to you this morning? Did you… notice anything suspicious or odd in the last hour or just a few minutes ago?"

"Well," Naruto scratched his head, taking a moment to ponder. "Not really. Although… I did try performing a summoning jutsu on myself, which backfired quite badly."

"A summoning jutsu?" Hiruzen inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, on this," Naruto lifted his jacket and tapped at the _Eight Trigrams_ pattern that was still visible. The Hokage nearly choked on his own pipe when he sucked in air, but he quickly covered up his uncharacteristic response while the blonde's gaze was averted downwards. "It's really weird. I never noticed I had this thing on my stomach before… maybe because I always had my shirt on whenever I tried using jutsu. What do you think, Hokage-jiji?"

When he looked up, he found the Third hovering right in front of him and leaning towards his exposed belly. If his suddenly being here in his apartment didn't scare the shit out of Naruto that time, then this surely did.

"Ah… don't do that!" the jinchuriki shouted.

Hiruzen murmured an apology before biting down on his pipe and scrutinizing the seal. It was fortunate the blonde kept his shirt up while making his analysis otherwise his thought processing in this regard would have been cut short. The elder scratched his chin as he took a closer look at the markings. _"It doesn't appear corrupted, damaged or warped in any way… however…"_ He brought his hand up and ran his fingers over what he assumed to be the anomaly. _"The boy's own chakra fluctuated as a result of his curious endeavor. Most interesting. The seal may have been tampered with yet the balance and strength of the barrier remains the same as before. The gate is still shut tight."_

"_I guess I can take that as a good thing…"_

Unable to contain it any longer, the snickering Naruto started laughing hysterically, "Hey! Ha-ha! That tickles! Stop that! W-What are you doing, oji-san?"

"Oh. Sorry, Naruto. Just thinking," Hiruzen exclaimed, standing up to full height once more. Playing his investigation off with a warm smile, he then looked down at the blonde seriously for a second as the boy lowered his jumper and dusted himself down._ "He hasn't released the Nine-Tails nor has the fox made any attempts to break free. Though it shouldn't be physically possible, there is no doubt that the powerful chakra signature that the sensor division picked up came off of young Naruto. Due to the unpredictable nature of Uzushiogakure sealing techniques, my guess is that by hitting the seal the boy must have unlocked some of his chakra that may have been accidentally sealed away when the Kyuubi was sealed inside of him."_

Like untying a knot in a length of string.

But did Naruto realize it himself that _he_ was the one that had managed to generate enough chakra to scare the living daylights out of the surveillance team?

Considering that nothing disastrous had occurred since the boy's little inquiry, not to mention Naruto wasn't doing anything that would be considered a threat, the Third concluded that maybe it was best to just leave things as they were and allow the boy to work things out for himself. He already had massive stamina and an abnormally high chakra signature, so he probably wouldn't notice.

Stroking his chin, the Third nodded assuredly to himself before turning to leave. "I'm glad to see you're doing alright, Naruto, but try not to play around with that seal on your stomach anymore. It's not something to get worked up about, nor is it wise to mess around with. Understand?" Yeah, a general excuse that was left wide open for questioning. Hopefully the youngster wouldn't invest too much time into it.

"S-Sure. But… why do I have this funky tattoo on my stomach in the first place, gramps?" Naruto asked, rubbing the area in question while watching the elder slowly head toward his corridor. "Is it important?"

"Very, which is why I want you to keep it hidden from the other villagers and to _not_ tamper with it," Hiruzen warned, stopping in his tracks and looking over at the youngster. "Trust me. Do NOT play around with stuff you don't know anything about. It could be harmful to both yourself and the people around you. Consider this an order from your Hokage." Seeing the downcast look come across the boy's face, the elder breathed out and gave him a small smile. "I promise to explain the seal across your stomach to you in more detail when you're older. Do you think you can wait a couple more years?"

Hearing the opportunity after the small bit of discouragement, Naruto nodded his head vigorously.

"Good. Now try not to get into anymore trouble, okay? Otherwise you'll have to answer to me the next time I wake up and find our most precious monument sullied with your handwriting," Hiruzen exclaimed, glancing back ahead of him to be on his way. However, when it seemed like he was about to leave, the old man hesitated and looked back at the jinchuriki with a puzzled expression. "Did you really glue all of the furniture in the academy to the ceiling?"

Remembering his underlying admittance from earlier, the blonde stiffened like a board before grinning sheepishly. He rubbed the back of his head when he saw the elder's eyebrow rise into his hairline, "Uhh… it was supposed to be a surprise for this coming Monday. I was bored…"

"Uh-huh." Figuring he would have to deal with another complaint in the week to come, the Third gave a tired groan before finally deciding to take his leave. "I swear you're going to make me completely bold by the end of this year, Naruto-kun. Ugh…." The opening and closing of the door in the hallway signaled his departure, allowing the resident of the flat to slump across his dining room table in relief.

That was an intense session he really didn't want to have again anytime soon.

What the hell was happening to him this morning?

OOO

Slapping his goggles over his forehead, Naruto headed off for a little walk around the neighborhood to clear his thoughts. He didn't just want to try and take his mind off of the matter of his ruined apartment but also to stroll off the swelling he still had from being slammed into a wall.

That seal across his belly was no joke. Who the hell put it there anyway… and for what?

These were the initial thoughts plaguing him as he trotted down the steps of his apartment and on his way out of the suburb. He kicked his form into autopilot and allowed his nose to steer him through the busy streets, all the while mulling over the problem he had been trying to deal with since before the whole thing with the exploding stomach occurred.

"_So I can't do anything with the seal. That's a bummer,"_ Naruto sighed in disappointment, hands behind his head and eyes directed towards the sky above. _"I can use all the other stuff Iruka-sensei taught in class like Kawarimi and Henge. I can fight, I can climb, I can run, I can survive… but I can't do the Bunshin no Jutsu and I hate tests!"_ Oh yeah, he sucked at them badly.

His biggest failings. These two in particular were the areas that had been weighing him down the entire time in the academy and were currently the most irritating thorns in his sides. They were also the main reasons why he was still called a slacker and a failure despite his other successes, because he kept crapping out on the theory.

While given a chance to actually pass through use of another jutsu, Naruto was still wrapped up in figuring out which one to learn. An offensive technique that packed a punch and was not only catchy, but also spoke to him… he didn't even know where to start.

"_A type of chakra armor? No," _Naruto thought while shaking his head. _"Not my style. Hmm. How about… a water controlling technique? Ahh… too many hand seals. They take too long and they're really hard to remember. Maybe… an exploding clone technique! Yes! Yes I… wait… no I… can't even create __**one**__ clone yet. I guess anything involving clones would be a dead end. Shit."_ The blonde snapped his fingers repeatedly, believing a couple of times that he had it, but really he didn't. _"A disappearing trick, an earth moving jutsu, something maybe I can use as a sword or a spear, or maybe the ability to conjure lightning?!"_

That actually sounded awesome. Stopping in the middle of the road Naruto tried pulling off a 'Thunder God' pose, arm stretched out and everything. He grinned stupidly as he envisioned himself standing at the top of a mountain before an altar, bathed in lightning with thousands of people bowing at his feet with offerings of ramen.

"Yes! I can see it now! _Uzumaki Naruto: God of Lightning_!" the blonde shouted at the top of his lungs, drawing a huge amount of attention from the villagers out on the streets.

The boy's exclamations meant silence was swiftly brought to the neighborhood and the tumbleweed prop was immediately called into shot, rolling across the dirt track before disappearing down an alleyway on the other side of the path. A faint cough was Naruto's only applause as he stood with his hand still extended and a maniacal grin on his face.

"Mummy, what's that boy doing?" a young girl asked while point at the petrified academy student.

"Don't look at him sweetie, just keep walking," the mother exclaimed while hurrying the two of them along.

Sweat drop forming, Naruto deftly fell out of statue form and folded his arms. He glared at his feet in frustration while everybody else tried going back to their business, wanting to put the scene of the weird blonde kid striking poses in the middle of the main highway as far out of their minds as possible.

"No… that wouldn't work," the jinchuriki groaned, eyes squinting as he tilted his head. "I don't look good in full blue and it all depends on the weather. Where the hell would I get enough electricity for a jutsu like that, anyway? Aaahh, damn it!" He kicked at a stone and stomped on dejectedly, at the same time flipping through random hand seals. _"Bird, Tiger, Ram, Hare, Hare, Dragon, Monkey, Ox, Bird… why the hell is this so hard?"_

In his quest to find the perfect technique the jinchuriki had tried to perform several jutsu he'd read from the academy library's scrolls, but none of them seemed to fit him. It wasn't like he couldn't perform them, he could, but they just didn't speak to him as a signature, nor were they that impressive. If he wanted to use a particular jutsu it was obvious for his type of person and character that he would have to practice that technique a lot in order to master it, just like Iruka said.

It wasn't like someone was going to conveniently rock up and teach him the perfect jutsu for him. The world didn't work like that. He wasn't a genius like Sasuke or an inherited type from any clan like Kiba, Choji or Shikamaru, or at least one that he knew of. So what the hell was he supposed to do?

Form a random hand seal, hold his hand out and hope for the best that something cool would happen? That's how jutsu were formed right? With the extensive number of hand seals and different combinations out there in the world, weren't there like _thousands_ of potential techniques yet to be discovered?

That's what he thought anyway.

"Yeah! Like I'm going to suddenly perform a jutsu on the spot," Naruto exclaimed sarcastically, forming a Tiger seal and slapping his hand against an empty wagon sitting on the road. "Oh look, I can blow up stuff with the touch of my hand! How convenient is that?"

The second he removed his hand however, there was a loud whooshing sound followed shortly by a violent gust of wind that tore into the road at the blonde's feet. Naruto's head snapped towards the wagon in alarm where he saw dust and debris begin twisting violently around the point he had made contact with the cart. It was almost like a vortex had sprung up right where he had placed his palm against the carriage.

The villagers too became aware of the disturbance through the wind whipping across the street and looked towards the anomaly with a start.

A split second later, as soon as all eyes were engaged with the scene the gust of wind blasting off of the side of the wagon suddenly lifted the stationary object right off the ground. The massive cart took off with a sonic boom ringing out all around, rocketing into the air like it had jet engines attached to it and disappearing over the tall buildings to God knows where. Its sudden flight left a startled Naruto and a street full of dumbstruck civilians in its wake.

All eyes then turned toward the jinchuriki.

Looking down at his hands, Naruto shook his head. "What… was _**that**_?" Did he just use a jutsu? If so, then what the hell kind of jutsu was it?

A grin formed on the jinchuriki's face and he balled his fingers into fists.

"_That was awesome!"_

XXX

**Meanwhile…**

Up in the academy in the classroom run by Iruka Umino, the scarred homeroom teacher himself was sitting at his desk looking intently over the files of each of his students. He was currently in the process of updating the current levels and skills of his students on paper, as well as their profiles and results. Based on their culminated written examinations and practical tests, they'd all been doing quite well as a group.

But there was one student in particular that stood out from the rest of the crowd, one that he knew quite well.

Naruto Uzumaki's file was splayed out in front of him with the jinchuriki's face paper-clipped in the top right corner. The boy really did take a good picture when he was serious about one, his wide grin bringing an amused smile to Iruka's face as he scanned his history. Even though the Chunin had been on the receiving end of a lot of his pranks as well as being the mop-and-bucket man of many more, the blonde had something about his person that made him unique and appealing compared to everybody else. He was like a shining ray of sunlight.

Still, this didn't diminish the fact that his tests on paper were poor. This was a well known fact since the youngster was always either absent or didn't stick to the requirements of his assessments. Sure he got them done, but his record was all over the place, ranging from bad to bloody excellent.

He was like radio waves, constantly undulating. The Uzumaki couldn't sit still and he didn't exactly follow instructions as well as the others; very free-spirited. But despite how poorly he did in certain occasions, Iruka couldn't help but give his records a second go over just to make sure whether the assessments had been fair on him. His most recent taijutsu match and win over the three enemy kunoichi had been a real eye opener to him.

Since most of his record was written down right here in front of him it made reassessment more convenient and after reviewing most of it in the time that he had, the man with the pony-tail arrived at a rather startling realization.

He was just about to delve further into this through pen when he heard a knock on the door.

"Hey there, Iruka. I was wondering where you were," came the obvious voice of conscious, also known as his good friend Mizuki. The white haired man strolled into the class with his hands in his pockets and a smile on his face, a greeting he received in kind from Iruka. "Catching up on some work?"

"Yeah, you could say that," Iruka chuckled, going back to the documents in front of him. "There's a lot here. I need to make sure I have it all filed correctly."

"I see," Mizuki exclaimed, waddling over and taking a glance at the papers. He was surprised to see a lot of documents related to Naruto Uzumaki on the desk. "Oh, if it isn't the practical joker. Are you going to book him again?"

"Not until Monday, no," Iruka chuckled, sliding one of the other sheets aside for a blank one. "Actually, since we're on the topic of our favorite prankster, what do you really think about young Naruto, Mizuki?"

"Me?" the man replied with a bat of his eyes. He never expected to be asked for his opinion on one of the village's biggest banes on society to date. Seriously. There hadn't been this much chaos in _Konohagakure_ since its inception and back then those problems had stemmed from clan disagreements. However, with the question out on the floor he had no choice but to respond. "Well… I think he's very open-minded and crafty for a child his age. He's terribly naïve and has a very simple view on life… extremely childish and immature, yet has a certain knack for causing people a lot of unwanted grief. It wouldn't be the first time…"

He mumbled the last part rather spitefully.

Iruka didn't pick up on that. Instead, he simply moved on with the topic at hand. "He doesn't fair well on paper and he doesn't really stick around long enough for stuff to be thoroughly explained to him. It's in his nature to wander about looking for new and interesting material. That being said, he's definitely the kind of kid that plays to his strengths…"

"Do tell," Mizuki exclaimed curiously.

"I've been looking back at his history: troublemaking, vandalism, endless pranks, constant failings in by-the-book examinations, absences from class, and a penchant for causing disaster wherever he sets foot. He's like a walking storm system; wild and untamable with a single purpose fixed inside of his head," Iruka said with a smile, "To become Hokage. It's ludicrous, isn't it?"

"What exactly are you getting at?"

"Beneath all of this bad rep and low scoring, have you ever noticed in all the times where Naruto actually _does_ succeed, all of the things he's done right?" Iruka asked, looking up at his comrade to see him shrug. "His pranks are pulled off flawlessly and not a single person has been able to catch him; quality stealth at its finest. The inimitable traps he's able to set and spring upon unsuspecting victims; a genius level of creativity and understanding of physics and shinobi tactics. The materials he's able to utilize, whether as throwing weapons, extensions of his hand, or devices to use in his endeavors; resourcefulness and superb aim. He knows his environment well enough to get away, is quick on his toes, and he's more than just slippery when it comes to pursuits. Even I sometimes have trouble trying to track him down."

Mizuki blinked, scratching his chin as he looked out the window, "Now that you mention it, he certainly does possess a high degree of skills outside of the academy system that can make him inadvertently dangerous. There's a lot of potential behind his abilities." This he meant, since he clearly remembered the time when Naruto had managed to hit all the Chunin in the academy at once without them knowing.

For example: the boy had managed to cram apples filled with worms without breaking the seams and given them to Iruka and Mizuki respectively. He replaced every single soda can in the cafeteria and vending machines with cans filled with dog urine (as they later found out to their dismay), which he'd collected from the Inuzuka kennels over a period of two months. Hell, there was also the one time the jinchuriki had unscrewed and undone every nail from every single piece of furniture, fixture and wall in the academy. They didn't know how he did it, but he did it, and the entire establishment had to be rebuilt from the ground up after a particularly strong breeze came by and knocked it all down.

This sneakiness and skill to strike at others indirectly showed outstanding shinobi quality. In any one of those instances Naruto could have poisoned every single man and woman in the building, drugged them, or set bombs off to bring down the entire area and sent them all to kingdom come. Now that Mizuki thought about it, the boy was an incredibly terrifying force to be reckoned with.

He made a note to check his office thoroughly next time before getting comfortable.

Eyeing the man's face had Iruka smirk. "See…"

"If he's so good, then why doesn't he put these skills of his to better use, like to his schooling?" Mizuki wondered, giving the man a suspicious glance.

The Chunin shrugged back, "Because he finds the system 'unbearable'. I can't change his nature. His resolve is even more steely and potent than his chakra and stamina. The best thing I can do is point him in the right direction and hope that the village survives to see the next day."

"You make him sound like some kind of monster," Mizuki chuckled, though inwardly admitting that that was probably true. Every adult in the village knew what he was and what he was carrying. It was hard for them not to put that thought out of their minds.

"He's not a monster. He's just a boy with insurmountable potential for growth, and has an odd way of dealing with problems," Iruka replied, leaning back in his chair and glancing up at his friend to see him smirk. "That's another thing, have you ever seen Naruto training?"

"Not really. He's usually alone most of the time, isn't he? Like Sasuke."

"It's been bothering me for a while. Do you remember the taijutsu sessions from last week?" Iruka asked. He saw his friend nod back, both of them scrutinizing that particular memory at the same time. "Every single student this academy's ever produced has either studied and practiced the basic forms of combat from the school's scrolls, or practiced their clan's or parents' taijutsu styles. Naruto's fighting style though… I just… can't seem to identify it or place it."

"Now that you mention it his fighting style is sort of _weird_ and uncouth," Mizuki murmured, scratching his cheek. "All that moving about with no guard, jumping, flipping and bending… he's very acrobatic."

"He's very unorthodox and wild. On top of his flexibility and agility, he has an uncanny sense of timing too," Iruka murmured, rubbing his chin. "When he first started at the academy he was an incredibly direct fighter, always wanting to get into a hitting match with his opponents. He didn't have much talent for the area and was always beaten up by the other students because of it. But after a few months I saw his fighting style change from crude, to academic, to being incredibly diverse. It didn't click with me until a year later when I saw his style had changed completely. It seems so unrefined now, but he's damn good with it."

"That's really creepy," Mizuki stated, his mind coming about to another important fact. He looked down at the boy's profile picture in slight alarm. "Actually, now that I think back to his other spars, he doesn't seem to be taking hits from anyone anymore. He's always dancing around his opponents or jumping over them."

On top of them too. The boy possessed an innate ability to distribute his weight instantaneously and contort his joints to the point normal people would have been in pain. His flicker jabs and swaybacks were a good example of this. He could take shots at his opponents while he was in close with them and not receive any hits in kind because he was so agile.

Analyzing his fighting style from a distance, Iruka and Mizuki also arrived to another important conclusion.

"His reflexes are like lightning," Mizuki murmured.

"That quick, huh?" Iruka smiled, nodding towards the file of the blonde haired student grinning back at him. "Even better than Sasuke's. I didn't even notice." Naruto really was further ahead than the Chunin originally thought. Looking underneath the underneath, just like how shinobi were supposed to look at challenges and obstacles, they both saw a side to the jinchuriki that they never knew he had before.

However…

"He doesn't like the theory and he can't perform the _Bunshin no Jutsu_ at all," Iruka stated, folding his arms with a puzzled quirk in his expression. "He's good at _Kawarimi_ and his _Henge_ transformations are flawless, despite his fooling around, and even though he's good off paper those other two aspects continue to disagree with him."

"I heard from the other teachers that you still wish to pass him, even if he was to fail in those two core areas," Mizuki said, leaning against the man's desk with his hand on his hip. "Is that wise; to allow that boy to become a Genin?"

"If he keeps up the record I've just reviewed," Iruka began, slapping the paper while also smiling up at his companion, "And improves over the next couple of years on top of it, then I will definitely allow him to graduate. Not to mention I was able to come to an agreement with him in regards to his faults. If he is still unable to get the _Bunshin no Jutsu_ right in the time before his final year at this academy, he has another option."

"Which is…?"

"That if he was to master a technique other than the _Bunshin no Jutsu_ before the final year deadline of his group then he may move on with a high grade in his record," Iruka exclaimed, padding the separate sheets of paper together and putting them all back into the boy's file. Having rewritten his overall evaluation for this semester on the blonde haired troublemaker, the Chunin felt content with his work. "It's a fair deal… one that he happily agreed to. If he's able to earn that one final chunk that will round out his entire skill set, then I promise here and now: I'll give him my own headband as a reward for his efforts." He flicked his forehead protector, sealing the deal with a 'cling'.

Mizuki chuckled, "So you're putting all your bets on him? Sounds like a safe gamble. The little runt had better come up with one hell of a jutsu before his time is up." He then looked around at the classroom…

Where the boy's potential was laid bare to them for all to see.

All of the desks and chairs, which had previously been fixed to the floor, had all been glued to the ceiling. Looking up at the rafters where all the furniture sat, Mizuki also noted that the filing cabinets and potted plants were also stuck up there. He also saw the space where Iruka's desk and chair had previously been glued.

The white-haired Chunin frowned, "Are… you positively sure about passing him."

Iruka nodded, "Absolutely… but I'll make sure he works for it, that I can promise you."

And what better start was there then slapping detention over the jinchuriki's head the moment he stepped into class on Monday.

XXX

**The next day…**

"Oh, this is so awesome!" Naruto exclaimed, slapping his right hand against a tree and watching the jet stream created from the action rip the whole thing right out of the ground and send it hurling over the forest, where it crashed Kami knows how far away. The sound of startled birds scattering filled the air with a sense of haste. The blonde laughed out excitedly upon watching the great fall while running circles, before eventually collapsing on the grass and throwing his hands into the air in triumph.

He methodically looked up at each palm, flexing his fingers to see if each of them were alright. So far he felt no muscle cramps, abnormalities in his movements, changes to his diet, diminishment in his spirit, or anything wrong with his head. In fact, he felt even better than ever. Just what the heck happened to him?

Not only that, how was he able to come up with this strange jutsu in the first place with a simple hand seal? It was unreal.

After practicing it for a majority of the afternoon as well as the entire night beforehand, which meant he got absolutely no sleep whatsoever testing his jutsu out on random, disused objects of various sizes, Naruto was able to grasp the basic concepts of the strange new technique. By gathering chakra through the usual manner and touching any surface area he deemed suitable, he was able to create an ejection point for air. The ejection point imprinted on the surface emitted a jet stream like vortex of wind with enough power behind it to uproot boulders the size of sheds from the ground and propel them at the same speed as objects even smaller and lighter than them.

That was a fuck-ton of power for a single chakra handprint to have.

This was something Naruto was able to deduce all on his own after testing it out in the woods outside of the suburbs. He was able to chuck an entire boulder the size of a roadside stall at the speed of a kunai like it weighed nothing. Wherever the thing landed he sure as hell hoped there were no animals lying in its path.

But damn it, that wasn't even the best part. Fact was he could make multiple ejection points at the same time. All he needed to do was tap his hand against a surface or a series of surfaces one-by-one or with both hands, allowing him to create simultaneous ejection points. Objects were then hurled a distance of about five-hundred meters, and this reach was covered with barely any effort exerted on Naruto's part at all. Though he didn't have full control over it and was just shooting the shit for the fun of it, it was still awesome on so many levels.

Just what the hell kind of chaotic technique did he create?

"_And what should I call it?"_ the blonde thought, staring at his hands as he rotated them under the light of the mid-day sun. _"I don't think anyone has heard or used this kind of technique before. I just slap a bit of my chakra against an object and watch it fly off like a rocket using wind. This is something else."_

He sat bolt upright and stared down at his palms with complete focus.

It was a _Wind Release_ technique. This was new. Of all the jutsu he could have come up with in his time brainstorming over what kind he could master, his body responded by giving him a _Wind Release_ type. Though it didn't explode, create pretty sparks or flood places, it was definitely mind blowing. At least it stuck to his preferences as to what he wanted.

The technique wasn't a normal wind type either, considering how powerful it was. Furthermore, it could function as both a close-range and long-range jutsu, as it was applied at close range but could also hurl objects of various sizes a considerable distance. The potential behind it was staggering.

This had Naruto thinking over the name he could give this thing.

"_It attaches a jet of wind and sends things flying off at breakneck speed. Though I'm sure there's more I can do with it, I need some more time to practice,"_ Naruto thought with a smile, snapping his fingers several times while pointing at his open right hand. _"Wind Release… no… too long. Short and simple. Short and simple. Umm… wind, vortex, tornado, jet… uhh… wind… hand… air… hand… air… hand… jet!"_

Tapping the side of his head several times with his finger, Naruto then clicked at something before pointing at his right hand victoriously.

"_Jet Hand! That's it! That's what I'll call it! __**Jet Hand**__!"_ A touch of brilliance he should say.

With the name given, Naruto then leapt to his feet, ran at a dead tree and slammed his hand against it, a split second before a gale of wind exploded off of its side and ripped the damn thing right out of the ground. It was then sent hurling through the forest and tearing through trees like there was no tomorrow. Hearing it crash in the distance moments later, still stuck with his hand extended in the 'launching' position, the jinchuriki grinned.

"Oh yeah. I've finally got my very own jutsu!"

Yup. He definitely couldn't wait for graduation…

XXX

**Monday morning…**

"Get back here!" Naruto shouted while leaping off of a nearby roof and trying to make a grab for the bird he was chasing. The swallow ducked right underneath his grasp, making the boy miss and coaxing a growl out of him. "Damn it, Swift-chan! How the hell do you do that! STOP!"

After getting up that morning and readying himself for school, the blonde was all set for a full day of work and training. However, on his way to the academy that morning he was unexpectedly blind sighted by his training companion Swift, the Fire-Breasted Swallow. Immediately recognizing the bird swooping at the back of his head as a challenge of sorts, the blonde quickly changed objectives and gave chase to the cheeky airborne attacker, and took to the rooftops.

What followed was another epic pursuit across the neighborhood, which was filled with screaming, cursing, chirping, and a lot of dangerous maneuvers. Villagers were startled when they saw an orange blur just dash in and out of sight at ground level, as well as see the same person sail through the air above their heads after lapping the suburbs. Though sort of like a repeat of a similar chase of last week, it was certainly a different experience for those directly involved.

Ducking a clothesline, Naruto crisscrossed an alleyway before leaping straight up at the retreating swallow. He made a swipe, missed, and spun towards a nearby rooftop, where he landed in a crouched position and arms stretched out to balance his fall. The jinchuriki grinned and glared up towards the bird, performing loops not too far from him.

"Show off!" Naruto shouted, dashing after it and making a dive. The bird darted out of reach, but had its tail-feathers grazed when the blonde's hand changed directions in mid-flight. Though it was a near miss, it was still a miss, which the Uzumaki was determined to correct. Landing on his hands against a bar, he pushed off of it and flung himself towards the bird again, kicking at it to make it change course, which it did. "The first move's a feint, Swift-chan!"

He made another grab for the bird, but she caught wind of his maneuver and flipped out of reach. The jinchuriki tumbled across a lower roof of a storehouse on landing. Crouching once again, he pursued the critter for the hundredth time, building up speed and jabbing for her again. Naruto's grin widened.

"I got you!"

However, he misinterpreted a dark spot ahead on the solid roof for a groove in the surface of the building, and inadvertently had his toes caught in the step. Just as his fingers were curling around the bird, Naruto was suddenly thrown off balance while running at full speed. The jinchuriki let out a startled yelp before he was slammed head first into the tiled floor. The plates shattered on impact as he bounced down the slope before literally cart-wheeling across the road…

What ended up breaking his fall was the tarp inside of a horse-drawn wagon parked just across from the storehouse. The boy careened into the carriage two stories below and disappeared in amongst the crates and barrels stacked inside of it, right behind the backs of the driver and his client who were in the process of finishing up their deal.

Hearing a loud clatter behind them, the driver; a middle-aged man dressed in brown overalls, white shirt and apron, had his hair covered in a bandana and a bushy mustache hiding his mouth, looked over his shoulder in surprise. Glancing around the street momentarily, he didn't see any signs of a collapse or anything out of the ordinary, and thus dismissed the disturbance as a mere trick of the wind and quickly looked back at the man selling him the goods.

Counting out the last of the ryo the transporter handed the remaining funds over to the larger gentleman in the workman's gear, who had obviously been one of the crew responsible for loading up the material. After double checking, the store owner smiled and pocketed the cash.

"I sure hope business for your area picks up soon. I've been seeing you less and less around the village these days, friend," the man exclaimed, nodding to the driver who scratched his head exhaustedly, "Trouble at home?"

"You could say that. Boy," the courier breathed out while shaking his head. "That man Gato is a tyrant. I swear. He's bullying everyone in the town and sucking every last dime out of those who can still afford to pay. The people who can't meet his obscene taxes are either beaten or chased out of the village. It's awful."

"Damn. Why doesn't the village leader or the authorities do something about him?" the workman asked curiously, earning a dismissive wave from the wagon driver.

"They're all gone. It's basically survival of the fittest now… or in this case survival of the _richest_," the traveler replied. "Times are tough, but those who remain have to push on. It's the only way we'll be able to continue living in this world. Everything's changing, even industry."

"Well, I still hope things work out for you guys," the other man replied with a smile, shaking hands with his regular. "If you need any help just drop by and ask. We're a shinobi village after all, so it's perfectly alright if you want to hire out some assistance if things get desperate."

"Ah I appreciate it… but…" the driver backed away with a nervous smile, "I can't really afford much at the moment. I've got a lot bills to pay and stuff, but I'll keep that in mind. Thank you." With a tip of his hat to the tradesman, the traveler hopped back up onto his carriage and brought the reigns around. Snapping them sharply the horse began to move as directed by its master, who waved back toward his client as he left the district for his next stop off.

While he was pulling out of the village following a quick check-in with the shinobi at the front gates, the driver failed to notice a small swallow land on the canvas roof of his wagon. Chirping frantically, the bird with the red kunai mark on its back hopped along the carriage's frame a couple of times before flying around and into the back of the cart.

There, nestled between some barrels and draped over a stack of flour bags, Naruto lay in an unconscious, crumpled heap with a swirl pattern in each eye. The ten-year-old had his mouth hung open in a stupid grin and was babbling all sorts of nonsense.

"Oooh… stars… rainbows… ramen…"

The swallow perched on the barrels next to him shook her head in dismay…

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

* * *

**Author's Note:** And so begins another adventure for Naruto.

I wanted to deviate a little bit from the canon storyline by, instead of him learning the Shadow Clone jutsu, gave Naruto a different jutsu to learn that people know absolutely nothing about. While stuff like shooting fireballs, creating huge waves and moving earth would have been cool, I gave the jinchuriki something else to fool around with.

How he came up with this new jutsu I was inspired from the episode when Jiraiya was a Genin and learned how to summon toads for the first time. He tried performing a summoning jutsu without a contract (something I figured Naruto would have done as well and indirectly copied with the Eight Trigrams on his stomach) and ended up in Mount Myobokuzan. Naruto created his jutsu purely by accident, perfect for his character, but will learn more from it as the story progresses.

Basically by trying to do a 'summoning jutsu' on his stomach, he inadvertently undid a 'knot' in his chakra network, allowing him to come up with this new technique.

And I know a lot of you still feel a bit funny about the previous fight with the three kunoichi. Well, after watching the series I saw that a lot of shinobi in the past around the same age as Naruto or younger have managed to pull off exceptional feats of their own. Kakashi became a Genin at age 5 and a Chunin at age 6, Itachi became Genin at 7 and Chunin at 10, Minato managed to rescue Kushina from three Kumo ninja at a young age, and there are many other shinobi of the older generations who have performed incredible acts of brilliance, talent or strength on their own.

Genius or not, basically all the series has shown us time and time again that age and rank doesn't mean squat. You can be a Chunin and only be as strong as a Genin, or you can be a Genin, in which case you are attacking guys as powerful as Pein. Thing is, anyone who is anyone can win in a fight, and I think I did illustrate to you all clearly in the previous chapter that Naruto is incredibly crafty and unpredictable.


	3. The World Out There

**NARUTO**

**Drifting**

_The World Out There_

**Three days later…**

Naruto was suddenly woken from his peaceful slumber by his bedspread coming to an abrupt and shuddering halt. He gave out a yelp of surprise when he was tossed onto his front, coaxing tears of pain from his eyes due to the bad position he landed in. "W-What? What's going on?"

Why he hadn't woken up days earlier from all the noise and rattling surrounding him beforehand was a good question. It could only be assumed that the infrequent rocking of the surface he had been laying on basically kept him relaxed enough to enjoy his pleasant montage of dreams to be asleep for over seventy-two hours. Too bad the 'comforter' he had been lying across hadn't exactly been the ideal surface for his body to be sprawled over, something he came to the full realization of when he sat up and stretched out after his bad landing. The sounds of each of his vertebrae popping back into place one after the other could be heard echoing throughout his dim chamber.

Letting out a yawn, the blonde rubbed his eye and looked around his strange surroundings, "Man… how long was I out?" He blinked in confusion when he saw the stacks of crates and boxes. "Wait a second… this isn't my bedroom."

Figuring he was still dreaming, he pinched himself in an attempt to rouse his mind from its slump. When he opened his eyes again and saw that his world hadn't changed he groaned in annoyance and stood up.

"I guess I must have fallen asleep in the academy's equipment shed again. Damn. What the hell's with all the barrels lying around?" While he was scratching his head, the boy winced when he felt a sharp poke to his cranium and looked up to see a familiar companion perched on the unlit lamp hanging from the ceiling of the low-riding room. "Oh, hey Swift-chan? What's up?"

The bird chirped sharply, directing his attention towards the exit. Listening to her stressful exclamations for the next few seconds as she explained to him their current situation, the blonde blew a raspberry and gave his friend a dismissive wave.

"What? No way. How the hell are we not in the village anymore?" Naruto shook his head, stepping over several bags of flour and reaching for the canvas entrance, all the while laughing the entire way. "That's a funny joke, Swift-chan. If we're not in Konoha anymore, then that would mean I must have fallen asleep in some traveler's carriage. What kind of Shikamaru do you take me fo-" He was cut short when he threw open the drapes of the wagon and found himself staring out at an unknown countryside, covered with fields, small areas of forest, and winding roads stretching out as far as the eye could see. "Oh…"

"Hey!"

Startled, Naruto looked over to see the driver of the wagon pointing at him with an incredulous look on his face.

"What are you doing hiding in the back of my cart, kid? Get out of there!"

Blinking a few times, the blonde meekly raised his hand in a dumbfounded greeting. "Uh, yeah… hi! Umm… could you please tell me where I am? I think I'm lost." The swallow who had accompanied him on his journey perched herself on his shoulder.

The driver scratched his head, "Geez, how long have you been in there? You're in _Gurētoribā no Tochi_, son." (Land of the Great River)

"Guretoriba? Never heard of it," Naruto looked around while leaning further out the wagon. He could see he was in a hilly area with a lot of farmland and open field. Apparently the man had stopped beside a local food stand on the side of the highway to take a break from his long trip. After quickly taking in his new surroundings, the jinchuriki looked back at the stumped tradesman and addressed him with a new question. "Umm, do you know how far away from _Konohagakure_ we are?"

He saw the man's eyes bug out. "_Konohagakure_? You're from _that_ village?" The blonde nodded. "I left the _Land of Fire_ three days ago! We're in a country to the far west sitting in between the _Land of Wind_ to the south and the _Land of_ _Earth_ to the north." The man breathed in amazement. "I gotta tell yah kid, you're a _long_ way from home."

Naruto appeared both bewildered and dismayed at that revelation. "Really? Ah crap… why the hell does this always happen to me?" Overcome, he then hopped out of the wagon and took his first steps across a road he'd never set foot on until now. "Oh well. Guess I'd better make the most of this." Looking left and right to check for traffic, the ten-year-old was able to ascertain the direction he had come from and where this man was apparently headed, before deciding to follow the road that the tradesman had been following.

Seeing the youngster head off down the highway the driver suddenly jumped back into life. "Whoa! Hey! You're going the wrong way, kid!"

Stopping for a moment, Naruto glanced back casually at the tradesmen while pointing down the route ahead of him. "There's a village close by, isn't there? That's where you were headed before you stopped."

"Y-Yes…"

"Then that's where I'll go. Thanks, oji-san!" With a kind wave and a smile the jinchuriki turned around and marched on, with his swallow companion riding atop his shoulder.

Betting on his knowledge of public transport, the boy figured he would be able to charter a ride back to his home village from the town and decided to take the lead in this unexpected adventure. Hopefully he would also be able to come across some more locals who could tell him more about this place he had wound up at.

He headed on, leaving a still bewildered looking driver behind who stared worryingly after him.

"Be careful, lad," the tradesman said to himself while stroking his mustache. "The great divide lies over that horizon… and I don't think you'll like what you're going to find there…"

XXX

**A couple hours later…**

"Whoa… now that is a big-ass trench," Naruto said to himself as he stood at the crest of the hill he'd finally arrived at and looked out over the rolling landscape of valleys and forests towards the great furrow he could see carved into the country. The line dug into the earth was about two kilometers wide and stretched from one vanishing point in the distance to the next; one of the largest natural formations he'd ever seen. He shook his head in amazement as he took it all in from end to end, disappointed that he didn't have a camera with him.

Though some mists toward the north concealed much of the trench, the boy still got a good enough look at the canyon, concluding that this view was by far one of the most amazing sights he'd ever seen.

"I can't wait to tell Iruka-sensei about this when I get home." Scratching his head as he marveled at the landscape, the blonde then looked down at the swallow nesting on his shoulder. "Did you know about this?" The bird merely chirped and ruffled her feathers. "Surprised? Yeah. So am I."

Deciding he'd had enough of taking in the sights at this distance the blonde began marching down the hill to continue on his trek. Spotting a farm house next to some dried up crops closer to the expanse of flats, Naruto instinctively headed there to see if anyone in the area could give him some proper directions to the village he was heading to. Honestly, even though it was a highway he still managed to get himself lost.

He needed a map… and something to eat.

Seriously, he was starving.

Perhaps while he was here he could poke around a little more and soak up some of the culture. He wanted to learn as much about this place so that he could tell Teuchi and Ayame the whole story in detail that was sure to come.

After following the dirt road that branched off of the main highway down to the cottage, Naruto stopped at the front door of the main building and gazed up at it wearily. The place was a little rundown and disused, with the only farm animals in sight being an ox, a cow, a donkey, and a few chickens asleep in their pen. There was a lot more space that would have housed a score of other animals, but they were all vacant. This had the boy wonder what exactly was going on with the owners of this establishment and its diminishing quality.

A few moments of consideration later and Naruto knocked on the door.

He didn't have to wait long for a response. "I said it before and I'll say it again, I am _not_ selling my land to you dogs! Fuck off!"

The reply from inside had Naruto recoil in shock. Well that was a pretty unpleasant welcome.

Staring at the entrance for a few more seconds and wondering what had this person's panties in such a twist, the blonde frowned and knocked again. This time though he wasn't just greeted by a voice but by the door itself flying open and a crossbow being shoved into his face. "Didn't you hear me? I said fu-huh?"

Naruto gave a yelp and stumbled back, freaking out at the sight of the loaded weapon. The swallow on his shoulders also chirped in surprise, ruffling her feathers to the point she looked like a ball of fluff.

The person brandishing the projectile piece peaked over the crosshairs to see a child staring back at her in shock. Blinking, the farmer lowered her crossbow. "A kid?"

Looking up at the owner of the cottage Naruto found himself staring at a slightly dirty yet pretty young lady around her twenties. Sporting a perfect figure, she wore tight jeans, a buttoned up red and white checkered top with her midriff exposed and a straw hat. Additionally she had long, dull green hair tied back into a ponytail, bright brown eyes, a beauty mark under her right eye and had a piece of straw stuck in her mouth. She looked quite spunky based solely on her appeal.

Upon looking the person standing in front of them over for a good minute, they both eased up, with the farmer removing the weapon completely out of her stance and letting it hang at her side. "Well this is a surprise. What's a brat like you doing all the way out here?"

Before he could answer Naruto's stomach gave a loud growl. He covered it with both hands and grinned sheepishly up at the woman, who raised an eyebrow at him. Taking that as his answer, she smiled at him and propped her crossbow against her shoulder.

"Hungry huh? Been living rough?"

"Sort of," the blonde shrugged. He would have liked to tell her about his situation back home, but that would have taken him hours and it was a conversation he really didn't feel like shedding light on. Getting straight to the point seemed like the better option. "I haven't eaten in three days."

"You're not the worst case I've had stumble in here but still, I'd be a bitch to just turn a little squirt like you away from my doorstep." The woman stepped aside and ushered him in. "Come on. I'll get yah something."

"Thanks a lot," Naruto chirped before striding into the home. The swallow sitting on his shoulder remained, feeling just as curious about this place as her human friend. She was a bit hungry too.

OOO

Warm relief flooded through Naruto the moment he finished the big bowl of stew that had been laid out in front of him by the nice lady who had invited him into her home. With a big, satisfied smile on his face, the blonde patted his sated stomach and breathed out a warm cloud of soup air, at the same time looking down to see his partner Swift eating her own fill of birdseed from a small saucer also provided by the farmer.

"It's been really quiet nowadays. Not many people come walking passed here anymore," the farmer exclaimed with a smile. "I guess maybe because I'm so out of the way as well that I don't get that many visitors."

It had been while they were eating Naruto'd learned that the kind woman's name was Hanare and that she was the sole owner of the farm he was currently at. She had been looking after this place ever since the old man who had taken her under his wing passed away and up until a few months ago the place had been bustling with life and was one of the most prosperous farms in the area.

That was… until…

"You're the first person who isn't one of those salesmen scumbags to come knocking on my door in, I'd say, about a month."

The blonde looked up at her curiously. "Really? That long, huh?"

Hanare nodded. "It sucks. Though I don't mind the peace and quiet, I had to sell off a lot of my animals just to pay the bills. I'm down to my last ones now."

"No wonder the farm looked so empty when I passed it," Naruto murmured while standing up. "What about your fields? Everything growing in them looks dead… like they haven't been watered in ages."

"The crops were what made this place so profitable to begin with," Hanare stated, glancing out her window with a perturbed look on her face. Naruto noticed her stare and how concerned it became. "Ever since Gato came in here and built that God-awful eyesore up the river, this land's value and living quality practically went down the toilet…"

"Huh?" Naruto tilted his head. "River? Eyesore? Who's Gato?"

"Man squirt, where the hell have you been these past several months? Living in a hole?"

Naruto grinned sheepishly, "I'm not from around here. The outside world is still abysmal to me."

"Well… if that's the case," Hanare began, checking her watch. Nodding her head she then opened one of the cupboards sitting above her kitchen sink and grabbed a pair of binoculars. She then motioned for the boy to follow her and soon the two of them were standing out on her front porch side by side. Holding the specs over her eyes, Hanare looked out to the massive gorge they could see in the distance before she held the device down to the blonde. "To the North. The mist's clearing up now so you can't miss it."

Naruto did as he was asked and raised the binoculars to his eyes. When he eventually spotted the 'eyesore' Hanare was talking about, his jaw almost hit the ground.

"What the hell is that?!" the blonde nearly shouted, leaning forward and blinking several times to make sure he wasn't seeing things. He lowered the binoculars.

Even at this bloody distance he could still see the gargantuan structure as clear as day.

"It's massive!"

"Yeah," Hanare replied, folding her arms and leaning against the doorframe. "That monstrosity is called the _Mugen River Dam_… or better known as _Gato's White Wall_."

"Mugen River…" Naruto murmured.

"This river stretches across the entire continent. It's the largest canal in all of the shinobi nations," Hanare informed before her eyes narrowed tersely. "Well… it used to be. I'm sure you've at least heard of _Gato Company_. Its products and services are known worldwide. Ever since the boss came waltzing in here with his circus act and bought out every water and power station in the region, as well as every available estate up on that ridge, he then built _that_ thing right next to the border. Now he's got a monopoly over the entire country."

Naruto's once puzzled and bewildered expression slowly transformed into a look of outrage as Hanare explained to him the situation. He glared out towards the colossus on the horizon; an enormous concrete structure stretching two kilometers with massive frames, cranes, towers, and the name _Gato International_ stamped clean across its front where the water outlets sat. The problem with his initial analysis though; there was absolutely no water to speak of.

The massive river had been reduced to a small stream barely visible from where they were standing; a shadow of what he assumed it once was.

This explained why the place looked so devoid of life and in such a state of decay. Nothing and nobody was getting any water. The sheer size and height of the structure was also keeping a lot of the rain clouds from drifting over the lands. Everything, including the sky, was being held back by that towering blot on the landscape. It seemed impossible, but it was exactly as it appeared.

This determination to keep all of that water back just to get money from all the people in the country was unthinkable. Who would do this?

"This land used to be so full of life. Food was plentiful, the money flow was good, and people were happy. Boy, you should have seen this place when it was at its best. It was like paradise," Hanare said before shrugging. "Oh sure we talked about projects like creating small dams, reservoirs and stuff; like setting up a power station to generate energy through water and building a bridge to the other side to provide another path to the other countries… but all of that talk was put to rest when _that_ man showed up." The farmer then shook her head. "Damn Gato. The people couldn't stop him in time and because of their dithering they're now suffering under his heel."

"That bastard…"

"No shit," Hanare replied, glaring hatefully at the monster towering over the dead river.

"Why doesn't somebody do something about him?" Naruto asked while glancing up at the farmer leaning against the entrance. "Where are the armies, the mobs, the shinobi? This is a whole country isn't it? Why doesn't somebody stop him or call for help?"

"No one can stop him or do anything about him because Gato is as much a monster as that gigantic wall of his," Hanare stated with a frown. "The person you're talking about here is one of the most powerful men in the world. He's conquered lands and felled opponents using only his resources. They are insurmountable. He doesn't just control the water and power in this land; he's also eliminated the daimyo as a threat to his operation here."

"What?"

"The country's leader has been all but dethroned. The money the lord once owned all went to Gato to pay for power and for water, and even that wasn't enough. Gato taxes everyone in the country to the point that he basically owns everything and everyone," Hanare said, gesturing to her farm. "Those who can't make a living or pay him are either kicked out, flee, or put to work under the boss, whether by their consent or not. Gato also wants _my_ land to set up a factory because there are precious resources stored underground and is constantly sending envoys to my front door to negotiate. It's only a matter of time till he starts sending his other lackeys to… 'persuade' me."

"Persuade… you mean… intimidate you?" Naruto asked with wide eyes.

"Intimidate, torture, kill, beat, drug, break every bone in my body, whatever," Hanare listed with a careless shrug, as if none of that bothered her. "I'm just one person up against an entire army. Gato's not only a powerhouse in the industrial and economical world; he also has thousands of workmen under his wing. On top of that, he doesn't just have people who run his branches. That's just a front. Mercenaries, pirates, drug lords, criminal organizations and shinobi… he's got a whole underworld dancing to his fiddle."

Oh great, so this Gato man wasn't just a billionaire and magnate, he was also a criminal. The fact that apparently he was also such a big face in the world of business meant that nobody, not even the shinobi villages, could do anything about him. He was too big a symbol, too high up in the world, too much of a commodity. That was quite an intimidating thought.

Not only that, but the fact that Naruto was told that the guy hired shinobi to do some of his dirty work also put a bit of knot in his throat.

Just what the hell has been going on over here this entire time? How did the people of this region let things get this far?

"It was all quick, just so you know," Hanare said, stepping out of the doorframe and taking the binoculars from the boy as he gazed attentively out at the desert that was once a river. "Before anyone could do or say anything Gato had already bought out half of the country's industry. This place has now become one of the many assets under his control."

"So there are more countries out there under his boot?" Naruto asked, feeling his anger rise and his fist start to shake. "There are more people out there being controlled by him? Being bullied by him?"

It was an old story. Naruto had been on the receiving end of a lot of grief, displeasure and hostility his entire life. He knew exactly what that was like.

"Yes. And we're not the first either," Hanare replied with a firm gaze. "I'm sorry to have to tell you all of this, since you're new here. This place is dying. There's not much left. The people who stay in this country are either hanging on by a thread or have nowhere else to go." She then nodded down the road towards the dried up river. "You can go to the main village and see for yourself if you like. But I recommend that you get out of this country as soon as you can, unless you want to get spotted and taxed by Gato's 'collectors' for entering their territory. We're actually quite fortunate that he hasn't hired any shinobi to watch this place, since it's so far out of the way of any hidden villages."

She was about to step back inside, but noticed that Naruto was still glaring angrily out at the river. Hanare held onto the door handle and looked back at him, a little surprised to see him shaking so much. After a while of intense silence she breathed out and turned to face him.

"You may as well let it go. There's nothing you can do here. You're just one person, kid…"

"The hell I'm not going to do something about this bullshit," Naruto snapped, glancing over his shoulder at the stunned farmer. "And I'm not just some random kid either."

Hanare blinked, raising an eyebrow at him. "Then what are you, squirt?"

The jinchuriki smirked and raised his thumb up to poke at the goggles on his forehead. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm going to be Hokage some day!" He then stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled. The woman jumped a little when the swallow that had previously been inside suddenly flew right by her head and landed on the blonde boy's shoulder.

Hanare looked to see her guest was still looking back at her with a wide grin.

"A future Hokage can't just stand back and watch a whole country die right in front of him. He's got to take action, dattebayo, no matter how stacked the odds are against him," Naruto exclaimed before taking off at full sprint for the river. "It's time for me to raise hell!"

Startled, Hanare jumped forward and called out for him. "Hey! Wait! Stop, Naruto! You're going to get yourself killed!"

"The hell I am!" the blonde called back with a wave. "I'm the hero of this story! There's no way I'm going to get killed! Believe it!"

After seeing the youngster disappear and the trail of dust he left behind settle, the terrified looking farmer leaned back with a worried gaze slapped across her face. She furrowed her brow and bit her lip anxiously.

"_Please… don't do anything stupid, squirt."_

If he somehow lived through to tomorrow… somehow, she would eat her own boots…

OOO

**Riverside village…**

It was a quick run especially for the bundle of energy that was Naruto, who came into the village hoping to see a lot of people walking around. Indeed there were a few, a lot more than what he was expecting to see after hearing the whole story of this place from Hanare, but after taking some second glances and looks there were only two sorts he was able to make out.

First there were the villagers themselves, all looking ragged, worn out and broken. Everyone he saw from this group looked awful, something that had the jinchuriki stop in his tracks and drink in for a solid minute.

He could pretty much guess that their current states of appearance were all thanks to this Gato bastard.

The second lot of people that he could see walking in amongst the civilians, judging from their crude uniforms, menacing appearances, weapons, and the fact that a lot of them were walking around in packs, Naruto identified them as the boss's cronies. This pretty much made up the black and white population that was once a thriving riverside village. The whole thing was built on a wharf meant to stand above the flowing river, but was now a dry puddle in the middle of a dying land.

Even the vegetation that once surrounded the village had grown thin from lack of hydration. It was horrible.

"How can this place not get any rain?" Naruto wondered, looking up towards the dam he could see over the rooftops and the rainclouds caught behind it. _"Is it really because of that thing? Is it some kind of curse that's keeping the skies empty?"_

If it was then the blonde was definitely going to have to find a way to break it. He'd made this vow while he had been running down the hillside to get to this place, and he intended to follow-through with his goal no matter what.

Looking around him at the dilapidated buildings and spirit worn people a second time, Naruto could see that he had his work cut out for him.

Before he could start on anything though he had to find the village mayor or leader; whoever was in charge that wasn't under Gato's payroll. The blonde moved with purpose down the road, avoiding eye contact with the thugs, including the ones dining in the nearby bars and stands, yet still managing to attract quite a lot of attention from the weary and exhausted villagers.

It was uncomfortably quiet in this place.

"This is really depressing, Swift-chan," Naruto murmured, earning a tweet of agreement from the swallow on his shoulder.

While walking down the main road the blonde suddenly became aware of a commotion taking place not too far from where he was. Looking across the street the jinchuriki saw a small group of people standing outside a building and looking down. For what reason Naruto had no idea until his ears picked up the distinct sound of a sweet melody filling the air. Blinking, he approached to find out exactly what it was.

He was pleasantly surprised when he saw a girl with dark pink hair closely resembling red in color sitting against the wall and playing a flute. She was entrancing the people around her with her performance, earning coins for her efforts and playing a song that was so charming it almost drew Naruto himself into the realm of enchantment. However, instead of becoming completely mesmerized like the rest of the villagers surrounding her appeared to be, he instead smiled warmly and listened in from a distance.

Though the jinchuriki didn't know it thanks to his proximity with her, the young street musician was captivating her audience with a genjutsu that was only effective at a certain range, so she was in no danger of being found out by any perceptive onlookers. However, this definitely explained the number of people gathered around her and swaying to the heavenly notes flowing from her piece. She had lured them in and trapped them like flies in a web.

The girl appeared to be around Naruto's age, maybe a year older. She had lovely hair, a fair face, and beautiful brown eyes, yet covering this delicate exterior was the dirt and grime from an appalling environment and an ill-fated lifestyle. She was also dressed in worn out clothing that was tattered and filthy, something the jinchuriki figured she had attained from a long time of living out on the streets.

It was a familiar sight. Naruto understood this himself from his own experience; days which when he was down on his luck for the longest times.

When the flute music faded and the girl lowered her instrument, the few people standing around her dropped coins into her hat and slowly left the scene one after the other. It was when the crowd had finally dispersed Naruto was permitted a clear view of the tired looking girl, huddled up against the wall and clutching her flute to her like it was her only lifeline.

He was about to go over as well, but was unable to when he was suddenly shoved aside by a group of large men walking past him. The jinchuriki looked up in surprise.

"Hey! Brat!" one of the four men that came to stand around the girl shouted, forming an intimidating wall before her with their hands on their weapons. "Wow… that was some beautiful music there. The boys and I were really touched. However…"

"We're sorry to say this, but you're playing on _our_ turf," another of the group exclaimed, leaning down further to leer at the urchin staring back at them with a vacant expression.

"You can't set up shop here and expect to kick down your profits. There's a fee that's charged to all freelancers in this town. Everyone has to pay it," a third stated, nudging his companion in the side and earning a snicker from the rest of his crew. "It's uhh… the law."

"You can understand us, right?" the leader asked, grinning as he placed his hand against the wall and keeping his eyes fixed on the adolescent musician. "Cough up… say… eighty percent of what you've made today and we'll be on our way. I can promise that you won't have any trouble from us."

Hearing this had Naruto scowl and clench his fists tightly. The more he watched the thugs crowding her, the more his jaw seemed to stiffen and his teeth start to bear. The bird on his shoulder sensed the rise in his frustrations, which had her ruffle her feathers in alarm before taking off to perch on a nearby roof.

She knew what was coming and didn't want to be anywhere near the vicinity when shit started to hit the fan.

"Well? Say something, brat," the lead brute exclaimed.

"You can talk can't you?" his second asked, kneeling down and grabbing the girl by the head, forcing her to look up at him. His grin widened when he felt the girl fight. "You know, you're quite the cutie underneath all those bangs. I bet you'd make a fine catch when you're older."

"That's an excellent observation, mate," the leader chuckled, leaning further down when the girl's head was forcefully turned his way. "Oh yes, a _fine_ observation. How would you like to come with us? I'm sure the boss can find a fantastic position for you on the market."

The girl gritted her teeth and shook her head as best she could, but was strained from the right-hand thug's grip in her locks. "Hell no! Leave me alone!"

"Hmm? What was that? I don't think I heard you right." The leader reached down and grabbed the sword at his waist. "Did you say 'please cut out my tongue if I don't start cooperating with you? Was that it?"

"Piss off!" the girl snapped, throwing her head out of the other man's grip and rolling out of the way. Making sure to grab the money she made, spilling some coins in the process, she tried to make a run for it. Her escape attempt however was rewarded by her hair getting grabbed from behind before she was violently thrown up against the wall. She cried out when she hit the bricks and was held there with her arm locked over her head. "OW! LET ME GO!"

"You know, it's not nice to play and run!" the second said with a smirk, raising the girl off the floor a little more so that she was dangling like a lure. "We should teach you a lesson about respecting authority."

"Oh yes," the group's boss exclaimed, drawing his sword and holding it out. He tapped it against her hand in a threatening manner. "We should cut off some of your fingers. If we do that then maybe you'll start singing a different tune."

"NO!" the girl cried out, tears brimming in her eyes when she felt her arm being squeezed even harder then before and her body being thrust further up the wall of the building by the boss's crony. She gritted her teeth and held both her flute and money tightly to her with her only free arm. _"H-Help… someone…"_

"Or better yet, how about I break your flute _and_ your fingers," the second said, watching his companion swing his sword around and prop it against his shoulder, allowing some breathing room. The man holding up the girl grabbed the girl's hand holding both her instrument and coins. "Come on… damn it… cough it up!"

"NO!" the girl shouted tearfully, thrashing her hand about in an attempt to fight off the mercenary, but to no avail.

Just as the villagers watching on the streets began to worry for the girl's safety and the men came even closer to relinquishing her of her precious items, the world snapped.

**CRACK!**

The sound of a sharp thud echoing throughout the entire area silenced all bystanders and antagonists. The redhead being held against the wall was suddenly dropped to her feet when her captor unexpectedly jumped several feet into the air.

With his head cocked upwards and blood flying free from his mouth, the thug climbed three full heights off the ground before beginning an incredibly painful descent, his companions looking up at his curling form in bewilderment.

The remaining three then looked down, where they saw to their utter disbelief a young boy with wild blonde hair with his hands in his pockets and his foot jutted skywards, standing inside of their circle. The kid had seemingly appeared out of nowhere and sent a kick straight up into a man twice his size with apparently no prior movement or windup leading into the blow. It was absurd.

"W-What the fuck?!" the head gangster choked out when he saw his second slam into the ground several feet away with a deafening thump. "H-How did… YOU LITTLE SHIT!" He spun around, swinging his sword straight down to slice the kid in two, only for his vision to fade to black when the one he was targeting leapt at him with a left overhand that blasted his face and upper body coiling backwards. Knocked unconscious from the one hit, the boss thug hit the ground with an even louder thud then his teammate's, like an anvil making landfall.

"You moron! It's just a kid!" the thug standing behind the attacking Naruto shouted before launching himself at the boy, aiming to grab his collar. "Stop screwing a-OOF!" He didn't have time to even start his assault when the runt he was trying to take from behind spun like a top, leapt into the air, and slammed a kick straight across his face. The ruffian literally spun through the air before landing painfully on his head.

Returning to earth gracefully, Naruto glanced over at the girl slumped against the wall and looking across at him in astonishment. Her tear strung eyes wavered under the sun when the boy sent her a grin before wordlessly back-flipping high into the air to avoid the fourth man diving at him from behind with a knife. He landed on the backstabber's back and dropped down to slam his feet into his beltline, at the same time grabbing the mercenary by the nostrils and pulling him into what looked like one of the most painful holds in recorded taijutsu history.

"OWOWOWOWOWOW-L-LET GO!" the grown man cried out in agony when he felt his snout begin to get pulled up to where his hairline stopped. His upper body was slowly bent backwards to the point where it was beginning to resemble the curve of an 'f'. "LET GO! LET GO! LET GO!"

"Hey! Run for it!" Naruto shouted, looking over at the girl leaning against the wall and looking on in awe. The red head responded with a blink and a jump in her shoulders. "Get out of here while you can. I'll hold them off. Go! Now!"

Not needing to be told twice the young musician nodded affirmatively before picking her things off the floor and sprinting into the nearest alleyway. She was gone in a matter of seconds, allowing Naruto to finish dealing with the trash littering the streets.

He kicked behind the locked man's knees, sending him dropping to the floor before releasing his face so that he sprang forward. When he did, Naruto quickly slammed his hand into the back of his head and rammed it straight into the ground, cracking the dry earth and splattering blood all over the road. Oh he didn't kill him, but the blow was strong enough to ensure that once he regained consciousness he'd find his face resembling that of Picasso's.

Scowling, Naruto looked up from on top of his out cold foe to see more thugs come rushing out of the nearby buildings and stands, all of them brandishing dangerous weapons from staffs, to swords, to chains, to knives. Dozens of them instantly surrounded the boy dressed in orange, cutting off all potential escape routes.

Conventional ones anyway…

But Naruto had no plans of running away. Not in this fight. Instead, he grinned widely once he'd made a head count of all participants and saw that every single one of them was baring their teeth at him. The villagers in the street backed off or made a great effort to conceal themselves where they stood, leaving the kid all on his own to fight the horde of mongrels.

"I've had a pretty dull week out in the forests breaking trees into splinters, so I've been dying for a good work out. You claw-hopping idiots better not disappoint me," Naruto said, standing up on top of the person he was perched on and slamming both of his fists together to produce an audible thump. His grin widened when he saw them all approach him at once.

"This is gonna be fun…"

OOO

Several blocks out, huddled in the shadow of buildings and backstreets after what felt like hours of running, there sat the young female musician. Breathing hard with her eyes shut tight and sweat dripping down her brow, the red head clutched her worldly possessions to her chest and held fast as her knees trembled and threatened to give out. However, knowing she was not free from danger, not while she was still in this village, she remained conscious of her environment and looked back down the road she had come.

She remembered the faces of those that had cornered her, their shadows, the cold steel of sword against her skin and their glares. She also remembered the flash of bright light and the person that had come to her aid. That boy, dressed in orange with a head of golden spiky hair, came between her and her antagonists and smote each of them with a single blow. It was the most incredible thing she'd ever seen in her life, especially from someone who appeared to be no older than her.

However, she knew that there were more of those goons hanging around the area. She was aware of their presence the moment she stepped onto that road. There had been an entire gang of thugs nesting in the bars, having lunch, counting cash, intimidating the locals, and everything else mercenaries did in their off time. Had her plight beforehand not attracted their attention than the boy's interference surely did. She had no idea what was going to happen to him now.

Gulping down breaths of air, the girl then rose from her place of rest and prepared to move out. However, when she looked around to begin walking again, she jumped back with a start and let out a shriek when she came face-to-face with the same boy that had leapt to her aid.

Naruto grinned from where he was hanging, upside-down from an overhanging pipe. "Yo!"

The young girl looked up and down several times, wondering when and how he had managed to catch up to her without her knowing. Blinking and shaking her head to make sure she wasn't hallucinating, she stared at him in confusion. "Y-You?"

"Yeah, me. Were you expecting someone else?" the blonde asked playfully while swinging back and forth on the pole, gripping the edge with his toes. "My name's Naruto, by the way. Can I ask what your name is, pretty girl?"

The musician blinked, "T-Tayuya." She shook her head suddenly when she eventually realized the absurdity of his presence and transformed her once bewildered gaze into a scowl. "Wait just a damn second! What or who in the hell are you?"

"I just told you," Naruto replied casually, suddenly flipping over so that he was hanging from his hand, "I'm Naruto… Naruto Uzumaki."

"Are you… like… a ninja?" the urchin now known as Tayuya asked while watching him sway, "If so, from what village?"

"Konohagakure. But I'm not really a shinobi. Not yet anyway. I'm still just an academy student."

"Seriously?" the surprised red head asked while looking for a head band or insignia. Finding none, she frowned. "Bullshit. You don't fight like a damn nose-wiping school kid." He fought more like a monkey more than anything else, but that was a point of view she was willing to withhold for the time being as he did technically save her life.

She was also too confused and bewildered to be spouting those kinds of nonsense observations anyway.

Frowning a bit, Naruto dropped from the pipe and stepped up to the girl. Tayuya backed down a little in response to his actions but remained where her feet were planted when the blonde's nose came close to brushing against hers. The proximity actually brought a bit of coloring and warmth to her cheeks, yet she maintained her expression of confusion and stared back as her savior inspected her up close.

"Why do you swear like that?" Naruto asked, tilting his head. "Did I do something wrong?"

Hearing his question, Tayuya furrowed her brow. "No. But you _did_ do something really stupid." She stepped away from him with red in her face and gave him a hard glare. "What kind of crazy, brain-dead fool are you? Taking on those thugs on your own… you could have been killed."

"Bah! No one can kill me!" Naruto laughed while thumping his chest with his fist. "People have tried and people have failed. With my skills I can take on entire armies using only my left and right, no matter how many there are, no matter what kind of jutsu they use or how much power they have. I'm just that awesome!"

Tayuya shoved him in the chest. "Don't screw with me! You're not from this village. You don't know me. I'm pretty sure you don't know a single person in this whole damn country! Kids like you don't do crap like jump in to save some homeless kid getting picked on and mugged by a group of killers! Why the hell did you save me?!"

Naruto went from confused to hurt when he felt all the girl's anger and frustration directed solely towards him, and lowered his hands to his sides in surprise. Suddenly, all energy and cheerfulness he had previously been conveying just dropped like a stone plummeting from a great height. It all happened so quickly.

He didn't expect for the girl to just bark at him like that. All he wanted to do was cheer her up. The fact that she was also tearing up from the ordeal she'd just endured also had his mood sink with hers, and he backed up a little to give her some space.

Unable to think of anything else, Naruto responded to the girl's harsh questions with the most straightforward answer he could come up with. At least he had the right sense in mind to know when to take things seriously.

"You were crying…" He saw Tayuya visibly recoil at his reply, her tongue catching in her mouth when she watched him rub the back of his head anxiously. "You were being bullied and hurt by those men. I couldn't just stand there and do nothing. I wanted to help you."

Tayuya felt a lump get stuck in her throat, which she tried to swallow. "But… w-why?"

"I don't… really have a good reason other than that…" the blonde said while scratching his cheek. "Besides, since when did you need a reason to help somebody in trouble? I don't need one. Maybe I helped you out because I understand what it's like to be alone, to be picked on and to have to fight to survive. I never want that to happen to me again, and I certainly don't want to see it happening to other people. It really sucks, you know…"

Feeling a bit ashamed at her previous outbursts, Tayuya mentally backed at his words before quietly glancing down at her feet. Upon thinking on her words more carefully, the redhead quickly realized that what she said to him and how she said it was a really terrible way to thank somebody for a favor. The boy standing in front of her had only helped her with the best of intentions and was now appearing rather hurt from how she responded to him.

The musician bit her lip and looked up once again, where she saw the blonde rubbing his arm like he'd just been whipped.

"I… I'm sorry," Tayuya murmured, drawing his attention back to her. "I didn't mean to snap… it's just…" She heaved a sigh and shook her head. "It's been hard for me these past few months. I haven't eaten or slept in a warm bed in ages." Hugging herself, Tayuya ran her hands up and down her arms to show how dreadful she was feeling. It was an expression that did not go unnoticed. "Th-Thank you…"

Naruto gave her a look of momentary surprise before a grin flashed across his face, followed shortly by a laugh and a nod. "You're most welcome, Tayuya-chan."

The redhead subtly bristled at his affectionate suffix and blushed, "Hey! Don't call me that! What the hell's wrong with you?"

"What? Call you what, Tayuya-chan?"

"That! Blargh. What the fuck's with the _chan_ shit? Don't call me that you weirdo…"

"Aww… but it's cute."

Tayuya blushed even more brightly and slammed her foot into the ground. "NO! IT'S NOT!"

Before she could formulate a more reliable comeback, the air was suddenly filled with the sound of a low growl that interrupted both party members from their exchange and prompted the red-haired musician to grab a hold of her stomach. The noise brought further embarrassment to the already distressed Tayuya, who then did everything in her power to keep her gaze from meeting her savior's.

Naruto smiled up at her. "Hungry?"

Tayuya nodded meekly.

"Me too. Come on, I'll get you something."

After fighting and beating the shit out of over fifty gangsters on the streets with his bare hands; hell yeah was he hungry. Still, he being famished didn't rid him of the spring in his step or the smile on his face as he escorted a now timorous looking Tayuya by the hand out of the alleyway.

XXX

**An hour later…**

Up in the enormous dam at the ridge of the massive river, in a guard house situated safely on the east side of the structure, life was going splendidly for one particular individual.

Sitting at his large oak desk right next to a large window giving him a splendid view of the entire countryside, a short man dressed in a black suit with spiky brown hair, round sunglasses and a thin mustache was busy enjoying his lunch of lobster with a side of salad and potatoes, all the while using whatever free time he had contemplating his next big scheme.

Things were going quite nicely for the head of Gato Company up here. All he had was a fuck ton of time, money and places to look forward to visiting on his next corporate retreat. In fact, he was so stress-free right now the boss was deeply considering going for a stroll around the waterworks to see how the pumps were operating. But with so many employees already being paid to do the job for him, he quickly dismissed that option and instead made plans to go visit a hot spring this afternoon.

Life was great. He couldn't have asked for anything more.

However, just as Gato was beginning to break more legs on his high-class dish to slurp up the rich white meat hiding inside, there was a sudden knock on his front door shortly followed by the entrance itself being thrown open before his consent could even be given.

The boss of the establishment looked up uncaringly from his spot, where he saw his two bodyguards, a young man with white hair, marks under his eyes, wearing a purple hat and a blue hooded jacket, and a larger, shirtless man with scars, brown hair, tattoos and an eye patch, come strolling on in. Both of them had katanas sheathed at their waists and both of them looked really intimidating; the perfect muscle for the head of an international conglomerate.

Wiping his mouth with a serviette Gato looked back out the window. "This had better be important. I've got a lot of paperwork to get through, so make it quick." Yeah, it was a lie, but he just didn't feel like dealing with his tagalongs at the moment.

He gave them his back, showing his lack of interest in whatever they had to say. It was rather unfortunate that he wasn't paying them any mind as he failed to notice that when his two hands eventually stopped before his desk, both of them were looking quite nervous.

"It's… not really _important_ boss… but…" Zori began with a stammer, "But uhh…"

"What? But what?" Gato asked impatiently. "Spit it out."

"Well, you see, several of our men were assaulted down in the village about an hour ago."

"Yeah. Yeah. Well. Not really several men… a lot of our men… well… _most_ of our men, I should say," Waraji chuckled.

"Most? Did they get into a massive brawl down at the bars or something?" Gato asked, wondering if this case was going to give him a headache. Honestly, the people he was giving orders to were such slackers. None of them knew how to take care of themselves.

"N-No. The street crew said it was some blonde kid around _this_ tall, wearing orange and a pair of goggles," Waraji stated while making an approximate guess as to the height of the offender with his hand, holding it up around his waist for illustration. "He did the whole gang in. Many of the boys needed to go to the sick bay because of broken bones."

"What are they? Babies?" Gato spat, scrunching up his serviette and tossing it onto his desk before glaring across at the two brutes in his room. "I didn't hire a bunch of wusses to patrol my streets! I hired a bunch of ruthless cut-throats from the trashiest places on this continent to suck this place dry of everything it had. Did those guys lie on their resumes or something? How the fuck were they beaten up by some tiny brat?"

"It wasn't some ordinary brat, boss," Zori spoke up again, making gestures in the air. "They said he was some kind of _demon_."

"Yeah. He fought like a monster. Like a wild animal," Waraji stated with a nod while sweating quite a bit. "I didn't believe it till I saw the boys that got beat up myself. Over sixty of them…"

"WHAT?! SIXTY?!" Gato leapt out of his seat. "How? How is that possible?"

"W-We don't know!"

Gato fumed. "Well… who's the dead brat that took em out?"

This sounded dangerous. A boy only a few feet tall whose balls hadn't even dropped yet was able to take on a contingent of his mercenaries and win? That wasn't right, nor was it normal.

"We don't know. All we got was a description of the runt from the guys. Nothing else," Zori stated.

Gato clenched his fists before ramming one into his desk, shaking his pens and papers out of place. He then pointed towards the two firmly, "Get Jako off of his lazy ass and send him down there to hunt the brat! I want him found and brought to me dead or alive… I don't care. Just deal with him." The simplest action was the easiest course. Surely it wouldn't be that difficult. "And get _Crow_ out of his fucking nest. I want him up here ASAP." The two men nodded before making haste for the exit, literally sprinting out of the office.

Though Gato didn't look it, the man knew this dance well.

Sixty of his men. That's over fifty percent of the people he hired to enforce his rule over the village down below. Because of their high number he figured, no, _knew_ he wouldn't get any trouble out of the locals and would be able to carry on operations peacefully and without interruption.

However, when it seemed like he had a tight enough hold over the people, something small and piercing managed to slip unexpectedly into his midst.

This kid, or so he was told, he knew right then and there from the casualty report that he was a spider with a nasty bite despite how tiny he was. Venomous too. A person with strength like that, able to wipe out half of his men down on the valley floor, could easily undermine his whole operation here if he got too cocky and started thinking he could take on his armies here.

Problems similar to this had arisen in other places too.

Well, all you needed to have to deal with this kind of issue was a big enough shoe to stomp the pest out…

XXX

**Sometime later…**

**Elsewhere…**

Being more than happy to help out someone in need, Naruto paid for both his ramen and Tayuya's when he took her to the only place in the village that sold it. The two of them pretty much gorged themselves on noodles and broth, more so the red head then the blonde, and ate over a dozen bowls apiece at the stand, much to the astonishment of the chef. After which they then parted from the restaurant with sated bellies and sweeter songs playing in their hearts. The blonde greeted sunlight for the second time that day with a stretch and a groan, while the young musician accompanying him continued to hold her flute to her chest and look with interest towards the ninja in training.

"Man! That was great!" Naruto exclaimed while smiling towards Tayuya. "Hanare-oneesan's stew was filling, but nothing beats several bowls of ramen after three days without eating even a single smidge of food. I tell yah, I was close to passing out back on that road fighting all of those guys at once…"

"No kidding," Tayuya replied, continuing to look up at the boy as they turned into the street and began following it. With that topic on the floor, she raised an eyebrow at him. "W-What happened to those mercenaries anyway? Did you kill them?"

"Kill them? Oh hell no. Not those dumbasses. They weren't worth it," Naruto replied with a distasteful frown. "I just knocked all their teeth out. Dogs can't bite without teeth. Isn't that how the saying goes?"

"I guess. It's… still a pretty weird thing to say though," the red head murmured. Still, she couldn't help but giggle when she imagined those men running off without teeth in their gums. That had to be some spectacle if this boy was able to come out of that cluster-fuck in one piece.

Naruto caught onto her giggling. "Hey… you've got a cute laugh, Tayuya-chan."

"Wh-What are you talking about, shithead?" the girl snickered, breathing sharply to stop herself before looking away. "I don't have a cute laugh. You're being weird."

"But it's true. Come on," Naruto grinned while trying to sneak a peek at her flushed face. "Show me that smile, Tayuya-chan. Please! Pretty please!"

"No. Go away," the red head said while shoving him away playfully. "Idiot."

Naruto grinned, kicking his feet up into strides as he moved along, allowing time for the young musician next to him to calm down. Glancing across every once in a while to check on her, he then saw her readjust her flute in her grip, which instantly brought him back to the first time he saw her.

While on that note, he couldn't help but speak up on the matter. "You play that really well you know."

"Huh? My flute?"

"Yeah. It was really good. I never met anyone who could play an instrument like that so well."

"Oh…th-thanks," Tayuya exclaimed, brushing several strands of hair behind her ear while smiling at the jinchuriki. "I don't really know any songs… I just play it by ear. I mostly use my flute to cast genjutsu on people to get them to give me money for food. It's really nothing special."

"Nothing special? It's fantastic! _You're_ fantastic!" Naruto said loudly while throwing his arms out, stopping them in their tracks. "I'd really like to hear you play for me again. No genjutsu this time, just straight up flute music."

"Really? Y-You mean it?"

"Yes. I really mean it!" Naruto nodded firmly, seeing the girl look at him in awe. He grinned even wider before turning to face the path ahead again. "Of course, before I do sit down to listen to you play I need to make one stop first."

"Stop? Where?" Tayuya asked curiously. "Aren't you new to this dump? Where do you possibly need to go around here?"

Naruto chuckled and pointed up towards the rooftops. "There!"

Following his gaze, the young musician looked towards the sky and squinted, figuring it would be somewhere far away. However, her eyes widened when her gaze fell upon the enormous dam towering over them in the distance further up the empty tributary. Double checking to make sure he was pointing in the right direction, Tayuya paled.

"There? Are you mental?"

"Nope. Just pissed off," Naruto replied while placing his hands on his hips. "I heard from Hanare-oneesan about what happened to this country and why everything here is so messed up. She said some Gato guy came here and built that thing, and now I have to take it down."

"How the fuck are you going to take _that_ thing down?" Tayuya shouted at him, now looking terrified at what her rescuer was planning to do next. Looking at his expression, she could see he was being serious. She had no idea if he was just messing with her, trying to act brave or was actually planning to go there. Either way, she was scared for his wellbeing. "Don't screw with me. Are you really going to go up there?"

"Yeah. Why not?"

"It's a fucking fortress!" Tayuya shouted, grabbing him by the arm and pulling on him roughly. "It's crawling with mercenaries and people working for Gato! The man is an industrial monster and a vicious gangster. I'm grateful to you for saving me, but what you want to do it… it's suicide!"

"I've broken into places more heavily guarded then that eyesore, for sure," Naruto grinned, his eyes not tearing away from the structure for even a moment. He placed his fists on his hips, ignoring the girl with her arms wrapped firmly around his limb. "Believe it. I promised Hanare-oneesan that I was going to do something about it, so I am, and when I set out to do something, I do it. I never go back on my word."

Tayuya gave him an incredulous stare. "You're crazy! I won't let you go up there!"

"I'd listen to the girl, kid."

Looking down in surprise, Naruto and Tayuya suddenly saw a large group of men stroll into their midst from the gaps between buildings on both sides of the road. They appeared like phantoms from the shadows, grinning sinisterly and dressed perfectly for the part of coldblooded killer. Any villagers in sight immediately ran for the hills the moment the dangerous mob of gangsters came into view and began to fill up the road. They soon came to block the kids' path completely, forming a tight wall of bodies before them.

Appearing even more intimidating then the last army of thugs from before, the two youngsters looked upon their ranks from left to right before focusing on the leader of the group, a tall man with black, sharp eyes, brown spiky hair pulled back into a short ponytail, and a goatee. He was also wearing a blue coat with yellow lining over a white top, and dark-colored pants underneath, and had a light blue scarf around his neck.

Tayuya stared at them nervously, "Oh no…"

Naruto blinked. "Huh? Who the hell are you guys?"

The large mob snickered in response as the captain of the platoon stepped forward with a wide smirk across his face. He brought his right arm out and flicked his wrist, a small tube popping out from a built-in slit that began to ooze a strange liquid. The substance dribbled down his hand before hardening into what both youngsters identified as a makeshift knife, which he then raised swiftly towards the pair.

"We're the discipline squad, boy," the leader Jako exclaimed with a menacing grin. "And we're here to teach the two of you a lesson for messing up the boss's staff."

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

* * *

**Author's note:** _Another one done. Awesome!_

_I know a lot of you were expecting an early Wave Arc. Fooled yah. Lol. But bare with me. It gets better. This small arc is all just a setup for the rest of the story to follow. Sure, the fic will follow a story close to canon, I'm just trimming it up a little to show the kind of mischief and mayhem this version of Naruto could get up to when unleashed upon the world._

_This arc is basically one where Naruto meets Tayuya when they are both younger before she's shanghaied into Orochimaru's company, meets Gato before Wave, faces off against Jako before team seven's formation, and meets Hanare way before she's arrested by Konoha shinobi for supposed infiltration._

_Now a lot of you are probably wondering about the characters I'd brought into this story. Let it be known they are not OC's. __**Jako**__ and his gang as mentioned above come from an anime episode in Shippuden from the Konoha History Arc, __**Naruto Shippuden Episode 194: The Worst Three-Legged Race**__, where Team 7 was tasked with acquiring this gold statue from a group of bandits, and Naruto and Sasuke end up having their hands stuck together. In this story, Jako is working for Gato._

_**Hanare**__ is also from __**Naruto Shippuden Episode 191: Kakashi's Love Song**__ in the Konoha History arc, and supposedly has history with Kakashi Hatake. You can find out more about these characters by looking them up. In here she's under cover in an 'outpost' in a different country, and shows that she has a really flexible character depending on her role as a spy._


	4. The Way Forward

**NARUTO**

**Drifting**

_The Way Forward_

Naruto looked baffled. "I didn't know this village had a discipline squad."

"I-It doesn't," Tayuya murmured, looking over the gang of thugs smirking unpleasantly at them. "That's the _Jako Gang_, a group of thieves Gato hired to be his muscle in the area. They're a low profile group, but they're incredibly dangerous… especially their leader." The girl shimmied away when she saw the boss tap his liquid blade against his shoulder. "H-He's strong…"

"Really?" the blonde asked before looking back towards the wall of rabble-rousers towering over them. After taking stock of their appearances and getting a feel for the Zen of the atmosphere, Naruto smirked, "I'll be the judge of that."

"Well? What say you kid?" Jako asked while nodding to the smiling blonde.

"What say me what?" Naruto fired back, giving the man a cocky smirk.

"My boss ordered me to bring you in dead or alive. Are you gonna come quietly or are you gonna start something with me too?" the man asked. His men snickered when he gestured for one of them to start the intimidation chain, weapons quickly being brought out to the front of the line from wherever they were being concealed. "Personally I'd prefer it if you gave me a little bit of trouble so that I'd have a good enough excuse to beat on you. That or I can just cut your throat right now and end this pathetic little farce."

"Same here, but I'd prefer not to get my top dirty with your scum excuse for blood once I start cracking your heads open," Naruto exclaimed while tugging on his collar to loosen it up. "Seriously, this jumper's brand new. Do you know how expensive these things are?"

Tayuya gripped his arm tightly and shook him so that the boy looked at her. "Are you nuts? Don't start bantering for a fight with these guys! They'll kill you."

"I said it before, Tayuya-chan; they can't kill me because I'm too awesome," Naruto joked before glancing back at them. "Though the big guy looks like he can actually throw his weight around in a fight, I'm pretty sure I can take him."

"Y-You're kidding me? Please tell me you're just playing," Tayuya shook him frantically.

"I never kid about these things, Tayuya-chan. I'm absolutely serious," Naruto replied flatly, making it impossible for the redhead to discern the validity of what he was stating. All she was able to take from his tone and expression was that his once playful gaze had become serious. The shadow beneath his goggles also fell across his eyes, giving him a really cool looking glare to go with his smirk.

"_N-No… don't do it… Naruto…"_

"Well? What's it going to be, blondie?" Jako asked again, raising an eyebrow, "Fresh stock or dead meat?"

"How about… neither?" Naruto asked, gently pushing Tayuya back so that he could step forward. He cracked his knuckles one after the other while eyeing his prey with excitement and anticipation, "Put up your dukes, goat boy. Let's see what you've got."

"So it's the hard way then, eh?" Jako chuckled, looking around at his men before directing several of them forward. Those with swords and bats stepped out and began approaching the kid in force, all of them brandishing their weapons with intent to harm. "As you wish. I'll make sure to kill you and that red haired bitch behind you quickly."

Naruto's expression immediately darkened at that threat and he spared a brief glance at the girl over his shoulder. When the band of mercenaries marching towards them broke out into a full on charge and Tayuya's eyes widened in fear, the boy caught in the middle of the confrontation clenched his fists and gritted his teeth.

"Leave Tayuya-chan out of this!" he shouted.

One of the men in front of the squad sprinted ahead with a terrifying cry of battle, trench coat trailing on the wind and katana pulled back, ready to slice his target down with a single strike. Naruto responded instantly to the man's attack with a blinding dash forward. He caught his would be assailant off guard when he appeared directly beneath him and plowed his fist right into the man's face through the loop in his arms formed by the grip on his weapon. The impact of the blow sent the thug blasting backwards in a shower of perspiration and straight into the ground with a deafening crack.

The mercenary could only twitch lifelessly where he landed, his busted mug bleeding out all over the floor.

"YOU BRAT!" another gangster shouted, lunging at the boy with a wooden staff. He held it above his head and swung straight down at his pint-sized target.

Naruto grinned widely and brought his left arm up, blocking the blow at close range. The impact caused the staff to shatter, literally turning the weapon into nothing but a shower of splinters. The jinchuriki then took full advantage of his opponent's shock and slammed a full right cross across the lowlife's face, dropping him. The next man to follow up came at him swinging with a short blade, which Naruto quickly leapt back to avoid before hiking up the brute's forward leg and kicking him across the face, sending his third 'kill' spiraling into the road in a magnificent one-hit take down.

The rearguard moved quickly to join their comrades in battle and within a few short seconds of the starting gun being fired, the party was in full swing.

One after the other, mercenaries and lowlifes of all shapes and sizes came at Naruto kicking and screaming as the boy dashed between them in the form of a small orange blur, dishing out blows and dodging every attack sent at him. This was where the jinchuriki's many years of brawling on the streets and training in the forests finally bore fruit, the current battle seeing him trade swift, decisive blows with the mercenaries while receiving zero damage in return. Those with swords were quickly dealt with by the agile youngster when he ran circles around them and jumped clean over full grown men's heads, firing off devastating attacks that left countless thugs reeling. Those assaulting him from behind or looking to punch it out with him were given the exact same fate as those moving to meet him head on; a swift beating followed by unconsciousness.

Naruto acrobatically and gracefully moved through his foes, cutting them down with elbows, high kicks and the occasional low blows that brought many of them to their knees. The grin he continued to sport as he smashed in faces left and right showed just how much fun he was really having. It was like he was back in his territory deep in the forests of Konoha, ducking low hanging branches and swinging through vines. Every individual he encountered provided him with a new obstacle to overcome, which he skillfully worked around and cleared up to make way for the next one. He made the whole thing out to be like a game of tag, trying to avoid his opponent's weapons while at the same time skillfully swinging between individuals.

Two in particular tried to hit him with staffs from either side in an effort to cut him off, but Naruto countered their attempt by leaping between them, performing a quick series of flips before sending a split kick at both parties, connecting with their faces. After a momentary hang time, the blonde then spiraled back down to the ground where, upon landing on his back, launched a double kick at a thug coming at him from ahead, knocking him out just as he had done everybody else.

Within minutes upon the start of the confrontation, Jako's once smug expression slowly deteriorated into one of utter shock and disbelief as he watched wave after wave of his men literally get taken down by a brat no older than ten. His jaw hung open on his flabbergasted face when he saw five of his subordinates try to surround the runt and attack him at once, only to have their target leap into the air, hang upside-down in mid-jump before spinning at them with kicks from both his feet like a top. The squad of mercenaries was smacked around and knocked away, allowing the blonde to drop back to the ground along with their unconscious forms and rush at the last remaining thug wielding a ball and chain.

"You rat! Just die already!" the gangster roared, skillfully spinning the iron weight around before flinging it at his target full force.

Naruto ducked right under it, weaving through the whipping chain before ramming a fully cocked right straight into the man's stomach once he was within range. The blow blasted the attacker back several feet like he was hit in the gut by a charging bull, the jinchuriki slowing to a stop and watching the stunned individual drop to his knees. Blood dripping out of his mouth, the groaning and seriously injured long-ranged combatant then fell flat onto his face with a deafening thud, his knock-out accompanied by a small cloud of dust.

This final take down signaled the defeat of the last of three dozen men sent to deal with the blonde punk, all of whom were now lying across the wide open road either whimpering in agony or showing zero signs of life.

Tayuya, who had been watching the entire fight from the sidelines, stood silent and stunned. She gazed in utter disbelief at the scene before her, watching as Naruto stepped around his fallen adversaries, dusted his hands down and then, after securing a good position on the highway, turned to face the leader of the pack, Jako.

The way he turned onto the wind and stood between her and the last of the mercenaries was, in her opinion, one of the coolest things she had ever seen.

"I… I don't believe it," the red head exclaimed, a smile quickly forming on her face, _"H-He can do it. Naruto-kun can actually beat them!" _A warm expression crossed Tayuya's face as she gazed at the boy's shoulders, her eyes shimmering with excitement and her cheeks glowing in admiration.

Jake on the other hand was beside himself, "Y-You… how did you?" He gritted his teeth and stepped forward, bringing his liquid chakra crafted sword around to point at the kid. "Who the hell are you?" Sweat visibly began to drip down his brow as he locked his best death glare on his surprisingly powerful adversary. _"This kid is no ordinary street punk. What the fuck is he?"_

"Who am I?" Naruto repeated with a sly grin, grabbing his goggles and pulling them down over his eyes. "Well, how about a stranger from out of town passing through and looking for some trouble. Satisfied?"

"FUCK NO!" the gangster roared, swinging his weapon back and chucking it at the boy.

"_Man. I have to come up with some kind of introduction for myself. Maybe something with epic music in the background while I'm striking an awesome pose,"_ Naruto thought before backhanding the incoming projectile and causing it to slam into a nearby wall, cracking it on impact and impaling the surface. Villagers watching in that area quickly ducked for cover, while the jinchuriki lowered the blade he used to defend himself.

"You've used up the last of my patience you little shit! I'm taking you down right now!" Whipping his other arm out, a second tube suddenly popped into view from Jako's wrist.

The lead mercenary then held both arms out like he was slinging web from them and fired off a barrage of densely compressed balls of liquid chakra. The blobs shot through the air at the speed of bullets, startling Naruto and forcing the youngster to break for the nearest alleyway, dodging pellets as they came at him. "Holy shit! AHH! W-What the hell?! Whoa!" The chakra gobs tore up the road behind him as he retreated, sending rubble and debris flying into the air.

"DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!" Jako laughed, rushing forward and keeping the orange monkey in his sights as he began firing upon buildings. The wooden homes and shops Naruto managed to take cover behind had holes blasted into them, the air quickly filling with dust and splinters. The cackling thief then ceased running and glared through the shit storm he'd created, trying to lock back onto his hidden foe.

"_Damn. I overdid it. Where'd that bastard run off to?"_

Just as he began searching through the wall of clouds rising up from the alley more intensely, a spark suddenly caught the man's eye and forced him to look up. When he did, Jako saw a sparkler shoot up from the smoke, zip through the air and dart straight towards him. It didn't look like a kunai or anything particularly dangerous, but not being one to take any chances Jako fired at it with his chakra launcher, intercepting the firework only for it to suddenly split up and multiply, before each of the dozen now smaller sparklers detonated around him.

The firework explosions encompassed the man with bright flashes and hot, stinging flickers, not only blinding him but stunning him. The bewildered Jako staggered back and waved his hands out in front of him, hissing in pain, "Gah! Damn it! You little trickster!" Trying to regain his senses, he was then hit by something small, fast moving, and round. The iron ball that came shooting from the smoke next smacked him clear in the forehead, causing the mercenary to yelp in shock and squint through a blurry vision to see exactly what was hitting him next.

Unfortunately, thanks to the stun bombs and the smoke messing up his vision, Jako couldn't make heads or tails of anything further than ten feet away from him when he was suddenly and inexplicably bombarded by a shower of iron pellets from somewhere directly ahead.

The half-blinded bastard was clipped in the shoulders, chest, fingers, toes, and even the genital area, an assault that was near impossible to defend against. The man cried out in torment as he was gradually pushed back into the wall of a building on the other side of the road, flailing his arms out in front of him uselessly with not a single portion of his body being spared from the onslaught.

"F-Fuck! Stop pelting me with crap you son of a-GAGH!" His words were literally caught in his throat when something small was shot into his mouth, which he swallowed. A split second later, his face turned bright red and he began spewing fire uncontrollably. "GAAAAAHHHH! WATER!"

"How do you like my **Wasabi Pellet**?" Naruto laughed as he came sprinting out of the dust keeping him concealed. With an opportunity finally presented to him, the boy in goggles zigzagged out from his sniping position and darted straight for his foe, watching him stumble about, clutching his throat and gushing flames. "Cool huh? Maybe not for you, but for me definitely! Bon appétit."

"Y-You!" Jako gagged, throwing his wrist out and firing off another salvo.

Naruto ducked the string of globs before drawing back his left and chucking a barrage of kunai at his attacker. His aim was right on the mark when his lightning fast blades sliced into the man's extended limb and flung it back. Jako looked up from his spot to see the tube and his arm skewered by throwing knives, a sight which further infuriated him and his efforts to destroy this wretched boy.

"Hold still!" the man roared, throwing his only free hand forward as a stream of powerful liquid jetted out. The torrent remained attached to his limb as he whipped it across, striking straight down at the blonde standing directly in his line of sight. The length of elastic slammed into the ground and split the earth with a terrifying crack, just like the individual, high-pressure shots he'd fired off before.

The swing was way off though, and Jako soon turned skywards to see the blonde haired boy he had tried to smite finishing his three story leap of evasion before diving straight back down at him feet first. The gang leader responded by relinquishing his hold of his whip and firing off a couple more rounds at the agile jinchuriki. Naruto saw them coming though, spinning and contorting this way and that accordingly before bringing his own gauntlet hand around and firing off a response.

In the blink of an eye, Jako suddenly found himself seeing red when multi-colored paint splattered across his eyes and left him with a make-up nightmare he just did not need right now. The boss cried out in agony when a burning sensation started gnawing at his face and he stumbled backwards along the road, clutching his painted visage. At the exact moment he started staggering, Naruto made landfall and grinned up at his handiwork.

"My eyes!" Jako cried out. "My eyes! I can't see!"

"That's great, because you're not going to like what I'm going to do next!" Naruto exclaimed, charging at the wounded enemy for one final attack. As he was making his approach, Jako began firing at him blindly with his liquid chakra launcher, but the nimble troublemaker from Konoha dodged every one of them with ease before jumping straight at the man and landing in a crouched position on top of his chest, while he was still upright. Securing his position, Naruto then grabbed both sides of the gangster's face, reared his head back, and slammed his forehead straight into his.

A loud crunching sound rang out, seconds before Jako's body went limp and he crashed to the floor with a bloody, swollen bruise on his forehead. Still perched on top of his opponent, Naruto chuckled and pulled his goggles back up, grinning brightly at his victory.

"Good fight."

Hopping off, the blonde dusted his hands on his jacket and looked around at the results of his hard work. The entire street was littered with unconscious and wounded mercenaries, all of whom had been laid out in a way that it was almost reminiscent of a massacre. The fact that they were still alive didn't make this genocide, but a completely one-sided battle that had ended in the protagonist's favor. It was a total victory for the blonde who celebrated it the only way he knew how; by nodding approvingly and smiling proudly.

A small shadow flew over Naruto's head, followed shortly by the red-breasted swallow that had traveled with him all the way out here fluttering down to perch on his shoulder. The boy grinned across at his companion, who gave him a chirp in greeting.

"Awesome, huh?" Naruto asked, before spinning around to see Tayuya and a whole mass of villagers in the background gaping at him. He looked at them one after the other and, upon giving them a cheerful grin, gestured over his shoulder at the various stricken individuals lying around him. "I think we should tie these guys up so that they don't run off when they regain consciousness. Yeah?"

Not getting an immediate response Naruto quickly went about dragging mercenaries safely across to one side of the street and, using whatever rope he could find, bound their hands, feet and bodies together. Making sure that they had no more weapons on them and that the most dangerous of the platoon, Jako, had his hands especially bound to keep him from using his chakra tubes, the jinchuriki then proceeded to make a head count. He whistled when he got to the grand total.

"Thirty eight? Damn. I'm just running through these people like bowls of ramen," Naruto chuckled. He then turned to see Tayuya looking curiously at him, his sudden swivel causing the girl to jump back at how close they were, "Not bad for an academy student, huh?"

"N-No. Not at all," Tayuya replied with a warm smile. "Y-You were amazing."

Naruto grinned bashfully and rubbed the back of his head, "Thanks. I've had a lot of practice."

The sound of clapping from the sidelines then caught the pair's attention. When they looked across the street to see what it was, they saw a young shop keeper come walking out from behind a stall applauding them with a big smile on his face. Villagers standing nearby slowly caught onto the rhythm and, one after the other, joined in the revelry. Applause and cheers came down upon the two children from all around, baffling the one on the receiving end of it all as he looked around at the crowd now starting to gather.

After a few minutes of nothing but whistling and ovations of approval, the clapping stopped, leaving Naruto to confront a street filled with beaming villagers.

"Hello!" Naruto exclaimed, waving toward the throng with a cheerful smile, "What's up everyone?"

"You beat them all!" the shopkeeper that had started the clapping chain exclaimed, stepping toward him with an excited smile. "You defeated the _Jako Gang_ singlehandedly!"

"This boy defeated the most notorious gang in the village! All of them!" another man shouted.

"He stood up to Gato's men and won!" a woman called.

"Let's hear it for the stranger!" With that, another cheer came up from the group of onlookers, who raised their hands in the air and praised the youngster once more for his victory. Naruto blushed at the amount of attention he received, whereas Tayuya quietly smiled in his direction and congratulated him in her own little way.

As cries of liberation went up and the villagers in the area applauded for a second time, attracting more and more people to the circle, a clearing of a person's throat amongst a small portion of the crowd had everyone stop and turn. Those closest to the interruption quickly parted, allowing the unknown interloper through to the center. When silence eventually came to reign amongst the people, the next thing Naruto and Tayuya became aware of was an elderly man around his eighties, dressed in traditional village robes, wooden sandals, a kazaori eboshi, and holding a long walking staff, suddenly come shuffling towards them from the back.

Tayuya moved aside, allowing the village elder a place to stand and gaze down at Naruto, who looked back up at the octogenarian curiously.

"Are you… the one who has been fighting for us, boy?" the old man asked in a soft voice.

Naruto smiled and nodded brightly, "Sure! You can say that. Who are you supposed to be, old timer?" The entire crowd sweat dropped at the boy's bold addressing of their voice of wisdom, while Tayuya shook her head in amusement at his naivety.

"I am Hiro… the village elder. As such, it is my duty to thank you for saving us from the heel of these vagabonds." He glanced briefly at the thugs that had been tied and lined up against the nearby wall. "These insufferable upstarts have been bullying and harassing us for months; robbing us of our livelihoods and living off of the sweat of our people," the elder stated while bowing his head to the youngster. "Thank you so, so much for what you've done."

"No problem," Naruto replied happily, looking around at the tired yet smiling villagers before focusing all his attention on the dam he could still see peaking over the rooftops. "So… what's it going to take for me to bring _that_ thing down?" All eyes moved away from the blonde to look up at the towering eyesore responsible for the town's suffering. "That's the monstrosity that's been the real pain for you people, right? Gato's White Wall. If I destroy that thing, will your lives down here go back to the way they were?"

"Yes," the elder replied, taking his staff into two hands and leaning against it. "The river is this country's life: the blood flow to its heart. To remove the dam would mean the revival of our community and the return of order to the land. We will be able to reclaim everything we'd lost and had stolen from us."

"That's great," Naruto chirped, grinning towards Tayuya to see her return his smile with one of her own. "See. Easy."

"Maybe for you, you crazy blonde," the redhead retorted.

The elder standing before the Good Samaritan raised his hand and momentarily placed an end to his exclamations. "I must first warn you young one, it is a dangerous venture. That enormous barrier represents the full strength and hold that Gato has over this country. Anyone who dares to approach him with the intent of stopping him will be met with fierce resistance. All the brave souls who have already tried to negotiate with the man all suffered greatly at his hands and were swiftly punished. It would be selfish of us to trouble you with such a task so full of mortal peril… but…"

"Oh, it's no problem," Naruto waved dismissively, stunning the crowd.

Jaws dropped all around while Hiro's eyes widened in response to his all too casual reply. "A-Are you saying you are willing to stand against the great _Mugen River Dam_?"

Naruto nodded affirmatively, "I've been willing ever since I came to this village, oji-san. Hanare-oneesan told me all about what happened to this place, and I want to teach whoever this Gato person is a lesson about not taking what doesn't belong to him," Naruto stated with a firm voice and a roguish smirk. "I'll beat him black and blue like I did his cronies and bust open that wall! I can promise you, I _will_ get your water back!"

"Y-You will?" Hiro asked, his body trembling with a mixture of delight and fear.

"That's Gato's base of operations up there. It's crawling with guards and workers," a villager spoke up from the masses.

The jinchuriki slowly glanced back up at the obstruction with a careless air in his expression. He raised his hand towards it and enclosed the wall within his fingers in a tight, vice-like grip, "It doesn't look that impressive from where I'm standing. It did before when I was up on the hill, but now it's just pissing me off." He looked down at Tayuya to see the young musician looking towards him curiously. "It's causing nothing but pain and trouble for all of you. Something that bad can't be left standing there."

"Then… you will help us? Truly?" a woman cradling a baby in her arms asked.

Naruto smiled at the mother and nodded. "I will. Believe it!"

"Th-Thank you," Hiro nearly cried, bowing gratefully to the boy. He looked back up at the child to see him grinning excitedly, "We have no money to pay you… we couldn't even afford to call for help. But should you succeed in destroying that wall, we will pay you back however we can …"

Brushing his nose and nodding in understanding, the blonde then turned and began heading down the road towards the dam, only to stop at the edge of the crowd who had parted enough to allow him passage. He tilted his head at the barrier, giving it a once over and allowing time for Tayuya to catch up to him.

The two youngsters stood side by side as the ninja in training brought his hands up and formed a square with his fingers, looking through it and up at the dam.

"What are you thinking, Naruto?" Tayuya asked, wondering what the jinchuriki had cooking up.

Naruto squinted thoughtfully, "I'm just wondering how I'm going to crack that sucker open without flooding the entire countryside. I guess I can just blow a hole out in the middle and let the water drain safely out into the dry riverbed before knocking a few more in. It looks sturdy enough," the jinchuriki murmured, rubbing his chin after analyzing the entire structure. "It's still got me scratching my head though. Gato's blocking off all the water with that thing but the river should still be flowing like normal behind it, right?"

"Yeah?"

"With all that water backed up behind the dam… it all has to go out somewhere, otherwise it would have spilled over already. Wouldn't it?" Naruto asked, surprising Tayuya at his observation.

It was a pretty solid question. What Naruto was asking was where all the excess water was going if not down the river? Gato had pretty much stopped all water flow except for a tiny stream thousands of times smaller than what the massive deluge previously was.

What the jinchuriki had in his head was something similar to a plug at the end of a hose. The water was still flowing through the tap and being stopped by the plug. The output would back up as more and more water came and with nowhere to go, well… it's safe to say that some piece would have to give. The dam shouldn't be able to stop thousands of tons of water on its own. If that was the dam's main purpose then the river would have gone over its limit a long time ago. So how the hell did Gato stop it from overflowing?

After some thinking an idea suddenly popped into Tayuya's head, "He must be redirecting the water through underground pipes." It was this conclusion that clicked with all those who were well within earshot.

"Even though there's no water coming through the main line the dam is still producing a lot of energy," a nearby villager spoke up, catching the pair's attention. "In order to control the entire country's supply of water Gato built a secondary, emergency line in case of flooding, and is using it to redirect the entire river through thousands of miles of pipes to a whole other country."

"Then I'll use that to my advantage," Naruto smiled, looking back towards Tayuya. When the girl felt his eyes on her she looked at him in surprise. "Do you want to help?"

"M-Me?" the redhead blinked. Comprehending the situation, the flute player freaked out and began waving her hands in front of her frantically, "Wait! I-I'm not a shinobi. I'm not even a shinobi in training. I can't help you. All I can use is weak genjutsu and that's it. I'm not a carefree idiot who can do impossible things like you. I can't do anything."

"Of course you can," Naruto smiled, taking her by the hands and holding them up. The girl blushed brightly under his intense gaze, yet the boy paid her reaction little mind. "Don't ever doubt yourself. Always think that you can do more than what other people, including you, think you can do, dattebayo!"

The girl stammered. For some strange reason the blonde ball of energy standing before her was incredibly persuasive with his words, even if they were few. The way he spoke to her with such conviction and confidence in his voice made it impossible for any person to doubt him or say _no_ to him. These thoughts were what plagued her mind as she fell under his charismatic spell, her cheeks heating up for the longest of moments before she gave the boy a stiff nod.

Before Tayuya even knew what had come over her, she had already agreed to accompany him on his mission, "O-Okay…"

"Sweet!" Naruto cheered, looking around at the anxious villagers with an eager smile, "We'll be back before you know it. This won't take long."

"Be careful, young warrior," Hiro spoke from the center, looking across at the two worryingly, "As with every road, Jako is not the only obstacle Gato has lying in wait for you. There is another, much more powerful foe guarding the wall ahead…"

"Hmm?" Raising an eyebrow, the jinchuriki looked towards the defeated gang tied up against the building. "There's a person much stronger than goat-boy?"

"Yes," Hiro murmured, his limbs trembling as the face of the individual appeared in his head, "They call him _Crow_; a vicious assassin with a five-million bounty on his head and the blood of thousands staining his hands. He may not be a ninja, but he has slain many with his sword. Be careful…"

Acknowledging this piece of info, Naruto waved, "Thanks, oji-san." He then gestured for Tayuya to follow and ran off, the bird on his shoulder taking flight to glide alongside them. The redhead did as she was bid and pursued, not wanting to be left behind to worry.

The villagers saw the boy off; with the elder murmuring uneasily at the future he saw waiting over the horizon.

"_Good luck young Naruto. Dangerous beings hunt along the path you walk…"_

XXX

**Two hours later…**

"THAT BASTARD, JAKO! I knew that arrogant, thick-headed son of a bitch would screw up one of these days! I just knew it!" Gato roared as he stormed down one of the main halls inside of the dam, followed closely by Zori, Waraji, and a man dressed in black samurai robes, a katana sheathed in a black scabbard at his side, and a black tengai that completely covered his face. He also had a raven perched on his shoulder with red, glaring eyes, which blinked as its head snapped here and there to every sight and sound.

It was only a few minutes ago that Gato received word from one of his contacts down in the village that Jako and his entire gang had been taken down, and dragged by the villagers to the town's jail for processing. Though Gato had every right and authority to bust them out, he just didn't feel like it at the moment for a couple of good reasons.

Number one; he had hired them to be his muscle and had ordered them to complete a simple task, which the boss and his crew failed miserably. Number two; he also didn't want them back in his ranks because he was pissed.

Gato was pissed because he knew that with the failure of Jako and his followers, the blonde haired brat targeting his goons would be coming up here next. The brat, who had taken out a whole battalion's worth of hired gangsters and hoodlums, and was now gunning for the dam.

Judging from the amount of time that had passed since Gato had sent word out for Jako to get the job done, chances are the little shit was already here. Damn, he could already be sneaking through the vents and pipelines as they spoke.

Though Gato was probably just being paranoid in front of his crew, he didn't want to take any chances. This was why everyone was acting so edgy around the workplace now, because the chief had just sent word out to every employee, guard and soldier on duty to be on the lookout for a boy capable of taking out even the best mercenaries they had out here. This whole situation was so messed up the man wished he had hired some rogue ninja for extra protection.

Why he didn't do so in the first place he had no idea? Perhaps he never expected to have a ten-year-old demon of natural disaster to suddenly come trouncing onto his territory one day and mess everything up.

All four of the heavy hitters of the institute moved at a hurried pace, the latter three standing at the flanks of their boss.

"He was indeed very impudent that Jako, sir," Zori inputted.

"That's the thing with common thieves and criminals. You can never trust any of them," Waraji also added with an amused smirk.

Hearing that one of their most powerful assets in the area as well as a majority of their forces had been beaten by a kid was almost laughable. To think that they were throwing money to get assignments done by scum like that, when all they should have done was find a kid like the one giving them such a headache now and have him deal with the problem.

It sure had Gato's underwear in a twist. The man was seething to an insurmountable degree and was biting down hard on the cigarette in his mouth. As they weaved through corridors and passed by worried workers trying to get out of the way, the group suddenly felt the ground at their feet tremble.

Even though it was a small tremor, the fact that it was able to travel through solid rock had the boss and his cronies stop in their tracks.

Gato, Zori and Waraji looked at the floor in surprise, while the man with the basket headwear looked around silently.

"What the…?" Zori murmured.

"There's thousands of feet of solid concrete around us… how can…" Waraji shook his head until he saw his boss chuck his hand up to silence them.

Gritting his teeth Gato listened in for anymore disturbances.

Sure enough, several seconds after putting their ear to the air, they all felt the ground shake again, this time followed by the telltale sounds of an explosion echoing throughout the various hallways. With those two disturbances, more and more tremors and low echoes began to reverberate through the corridor, accompanied by the rattling of pipes and the hissing of valves.

Looking around wildly, the head honcho growled through his teeth and ran forward, following the signs down the soulless passage for the way out. Moments later, the alarms started to blare. "Shit! SHIT!" Gato shouted, his small feet trying to carry him at top striding speed while his bodyguards followed closely behind. "FUCK! He's here… that little brat is already here!"

Zori and Waraji hurried after their chief along with their other bodyguard, whose bird companion began cawing incessantly. They marched through the concrete hallways, following the sounds of destruction and, hopefully, the source of all this commotion.

OOO

**Meanwhile…**

**Down in the central turbine room…**

Tayuya was honestly feeling quite entertained right now as she stood off to the side at the main entrance to the large hall watching Naruto blast away at the pipes with all the firepower he could muster from his already absurd arsenal of many things. The blonde was acting like a kid in a toy store from the way he was jumping about, using the gauntlet on his right arm to fire off explosive pellets from his sling shot and, with his free hand, launch exploding tags at every conceivable angle.

Wherever the projectiles landed they detonated, turning once solid and expensive equipment into twisted, burnt skeletons of what they previously were. There was already plenty smoldering all across the chamber so it was safe to say that the boy was indeed getting the job done.

Jumping over a couple of workers trying to stop him, Naruto kicked a guard off of his feet and sent him sprawling to the ground, before launching himself at a huge wheel latched up against a wall. Knocking some levers in to set him up for the next big move, he began turning the huge valve till the 'Open' bar read 'Closed.'

"This looks important!" the jinchuriki shouted, spinning the wheel till it was stuck tight. The moment the bar turned red, the dials on every pipe in the entire area encompassing the main switch hit 'Danger' or 'Full' at the exact same time, and all the pumps started going haywire. One by one, lines began to explode, and jets of water began shooting out in all different directions.

Upon seeing every important apparatus in the room start fluctuating like crazy, Naruto ripped the valve from the wall before chucking it across the floor. He then pulled out a cluster of kunai with explosive tags attached to them and threw them straight into a nearby wall. He didn't even know if that area was even important, the jinchuriki just wanted to blast as many holes into as many surfaces and pipes as he could, all in order to get things kick started for his grand finale.

Everything was falling perfectly into place…

That was until the kunai he chucked eventually landed and detonated with such force it ripped right into the concrete, resulting in thousands of kiloliters of water suddenly pouring into the room like the glass in an aquarium had just shattered. The once grinning blonde freaked out when he saw the wall of water about thirty feet high coming straight at him and, not needing to be told twice, legged it towards the entrance of the turbine station.

"SHIT! NOT GOOD!" Naruto yelled, the pursuing tsunami tearing up machinery and ripping apart platforms one after the other. "Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap! That was overkill! I shouldn't have done that! I didn't even know that was a God-damn main line!" He looked up to see Tayuya backing up at the sight of the flood chasing after him, remaining dead center in its path while employees went dashing right on past her.

Upon seeing absolute disaster suddenly strike the dam within minutes of the attack's outset, workers and guards that had previously been trying to stop the blonde haired demon from tormenting them quickly turned tail and dismissed their previous task of trying to catch him. Now everyone just wanted to get the hell out of there before they were caught in the raging torrents and drowned.

The blonde reached Tayuya ahead of the water and tossed his gauntlet arm up; flinging a small line from his launcher that hooked itself around a walkway several stories above. As soon as it was tied, Naruto wrapped an arm securely around his companion and the pair shot straight up towards the ceiling once the high-speed pulley activated.

The musician let out a cry of fright and latched onto Naruto for dear life as they went rocketing skywards.

"Sorry! Got a little carried away there!" the jinchuriki chuckled, earning a scowl from the girl.

They hit the walkways within seconds and looked down just in time to see the massive turbines in the room get washed away. Upon setting their feet on the metal railings, they separated, allowing Naruto to fully retract his lure.

"You really know how to make a mess, don't you?" Tayuya asked with an amused smile in play. Even with her heart pounding away at her chest, the musician still had the presence of mind to comment on the boy's mockery of the conservative world.

"What can I say, I'm a natural," the delighted Naruto replied.

Shaking her head, Tayuya was about to give her savior some witty comeback before something over the boy's shoulder caused her eyes to widen. "LOOK OUT!" The girl leapt at him and tackled him to the floor, just as a cluster of arrows sailed over their heads. When they crashed on top of each other, they both looked down the railing to see four Gato Company guards running their way.

The one that fired the arrows from his crossbow reloaded while his companions charged at the pair with swords.

Naruto gritted his teeth and was about to draw a kunai to deal with them, but was stopped when Tayuya pushed him back down and pulled out her flute. Without even needing to second think her next move the girl blew into her instrument and began playing a speedy yet familiar tune. Naruto looked at her when his ears caught the sound of beautiful music filling the air and, even when not the intended target of the technique, the jinchuriki knew exactly what this was.

"_Genjutsu?"_

The sound waves traveled fast. The guards advancing on the two kids were immediately caught by the melody and within seconds their screaming charge transformed into a muddled stumble. Moments later, they all collapsed face first onto the walkway, knocked out in one shot.

Tayuya removed the flute from her lips and grinned, before looking back down at Naruto pinned underneath her. The pair stared at each other for several seconds, taking a moment to contemplate why they appeared so close to each other until their actual positions became realized. Blushing brilliantly, the musician hopped off of Naruto so quickly it almost looked like she shunshined and as soon as she was back on her feet, started playing with her hair.

Shaking his head to rid himself of the genjutsu splash back, Naruto pulled himself up till they were both standing. "See. Didn't I tell you that you weren't useless?" the boy exclaimed, "Thanks for the save, Tayuya-chan."

The redhead looked back at him firmly, "Don't think anything of it. You saved my life, so it only made sense to return the favor."

"Whatever you say," Naruto chuckled before looking back down over the railing, where he could see half of the chamber was already filled and that the water level was steadily rising. "Yeah, we should get out of here."

"How long will it take, do you think?" Tayuya asked, referring to the boy's vast knowledge and experience in destroying everything in his path.

The blonde looked down at the metaphorical watch on his wrist. While his companion became a little bit irked at his attempt to look professional in his task, it did bring a small tweak of a smile to Tayuya's face seconds before Naruto brought his arm back down and opened an ear to their surroundings. The sound of creaking pipes and bursting banks became all too pronounced by this point, earning an understanding nod from the jinchuriki.

"We've got twenty minutes till this place brims, then I'll remove the walls," Naruto stated, rubbing his hands together excitedly. "Do you want to get a good seat to watch the fireworks?"

Tayuya raised an eyebrow, "A good… seat?"

"Wouldn't want to miss the final act," the jinchuriki said, shrugging his shoulders. "They're the best bits in a play. Come on. It'll be fun."

Lips turning upwards, Tayuya shoved him in the shoulder firmly. "Lead the way then, shithead."

Chuckling at the affectionate nickname Naruto began jogging down the walkway, where both he and his partner in crime hopped carelessly over the unconscious guards, leaving them to roll around where they were lying and plotted a course for the nearest exit. "Why'd you give me that nickname anyway?" the blonde asked curiously while climbing a flight of stairs, looking back to see a smirking Tayuya following close behind. "It doesn't seem like something you should really say in public."

It was crude and should have been demeaning too, but coming from the musician it didn't feel too bad. It actually made him laugh a little on the inside.

"Only to you, blondie. I don't know. I guess it just suits you. What? Did you want me to add an affectionate suffix to your first name like you did mine or do you want something even worse like wonder boy, kitty-kun or Mr. Whiskers?" the girl joked while giving him a wink. For some whacked up reason, her first choice sounded much better.

Naruto sighed, "Well… I guess shithead's at least a step up from dead-last and loser." No doubt. Those names had been getting old for quite some time now.

It was funny. No matter where he went or who he ran into, there was always somebody waiting for him up ahead with a new title to add to his name. Seriously. Was he a magnet for this crap? Surely there wasn't that much shrapnel flying through the air that he was constantly clipped by it on every pass. Not even Sasuke got this much affection and he was supposedly the best damn student in the group with the largest fan club ever recorded.

The jinchuriki swore as he started hiking up stairs with Tayuya that he was going to get a new title when he got back home, and none of that spirit hazing nonsense that the rest of his class had come up for him. He wanted an epithet that was cool and did his image justice.

OOO

After several minutes of climbing, the pair eventually arrived at one of the emergency towers in the middle of the dam. The hatch was kicked open and the swallow trailing after the two children flew out first, shortly followed by Naruto and Tayuya, the latter of which was a bit out of breath. The jinchuriki pulled the girl up to safety and made sure that she was okay before flipping the exit shut.

"Well… that was fun," Tayuya muttered, brushing her greasy hands down her shorts. "Slow down a bit next time. Those last two flights nearly killed me."

"Sorry about that," Naruto replied sheepishly, "I always forget that I've got way more stamina than anyone else I know. I can run forever at any pace I set."

"Why do I find myself believing that?" the red head wondered out loud while giving the blonde a thorough look over.

"Come on. Let's get over to the other side before the barriers burst. I want to get off this damn thing in case it decides to cave in on itself from the water eating away at the weight bearing pillars," Naruto said while extending a hand to her.

The girl brushed it aside and smirked at him. "I can move just fine on my own, thank you very much. But I'll let you point the way. You seem to know what you're doing."

Grinning proudly at the voice of confidence, Naruto hopped down the station while Tayuya used the nearby ladder. Once both of them were on the main road passing over the dam between the two sides of the river, the pair quickly made their way over to the village's side to get a good shot of the banks bursting.

However, just as they were starting to get traction in their retreat, a group of figures up ahead caused them to stop.

Standing beside a line of railway tracks used by workers to transport goods from one side of the dam to the other, there stood a short man in a suit and sunglasses, flanked by three noticeably taller cronies who were each armed with swords. A mini tram waited alongside them within jumping distance, a sight that told the two kids that the group in front of them must have used it to make their way to this point of the structure smack bang in the center.

The man with the rat like mustache and shades smirked when he saw the duo stop, the trembling at their feet caused by the imploding dam becoming more prominent. "So you're the two little mice running around and causing all the trouble? Honestly, from what I've been hearing about you, the so-called _demon_ kid, I expected you to be taller."

"Likewise," Naruto shot back when his once puzzled expression deteriorated into an irate scowl. "So you're Gato, I presume?"

"Correct," the boss replied while adjusting his tie, tapping his cane to the floor and laying both hands comfortably on top of it. "I am Gato of _Gato International_; the boss of the company and chief overseer of all industries, trade and networks operating underneath the banner."

"Normally when meeting a famous person I would say 'nice to meet you' just like everybody else. But after hearing about your organization and what you've been doing here in this country, you don't even deserve a 'fuck you'," Naruto replied with a smirk, before jabbing a finger in his direction, "But I'll say it anyway. Fuck you, you short-ass prick!"

"My, such kind words. It's exactly what I'd expect from a street punk and his cohort," Gato chuckled, tilting his head at the pair glaring him down. "You've been busy."

"Yeah. You wouldn't believe how exciting my day has already been. It's been real fun beating up all those dimwits and dumbasses you call henchmen," Naruto replied sarcastically. Unlike those other dozens of cannon fodder that had been more of a bother than a challenge, at least Jako got him to work up a sweat. The blonde slammed a fist into his open palm with a loud thump, a clear sign that he was pumped and ready for more, "Would you like to join them in the hospital wing? I heard there're still plenty of beds to be filled."

Gato gritted his teeth and backed up a little, but then remembered he still had several more cards left to play. He smirked back at the blonde after seeing him step towards them from a safe several yards away. "You talk big, brat. Care to back that up with action?"

"Sure. Give me your best shot," the jinchuriki replied while waving a hand, beckoning them to bring it on. "Ready when you are."

"Oh, I won't be doing the fighting today. No sir. That's why I have these dogs to do it for me," Gato replied while gesturing grandly to a smirking Zori, Waraji, and the faceless samurai with the raven perched on his shoulder. "These men take out the trash and guard their master's interests. Disposing of you should be no problem."

"I bet that's exactly what the other guy thought before I cracked his skull open," Naruto chuckled, rolling his head around and stretching his neck. "I'll give you points for trying. So who's going to be my next opponent?"

Gato grinned across at the cocky blonde. "Crow!"

The samurai wearing the basket clicked his sword and strode forward, the raven on his shoulder flapping its wings once before taking off. The sight of the big black bird taking flight prompted the swallow on Naruto's shoulder to also leave, not wanting to be around for the next show about to take place. The two birds went and situated themselves on the nearby railings, finding themselves the perfect seats for the bout. It was definitely going to be a big one.

Naruto surveyed his foe, finding his appearance quite intriguing. He'd never fought a samurai before, not to mention someone who actually looked as impressive as he was. His shadow alone had the academy student slide his feet out and widen into a steadier stance.

"So you're the _Crow_ oji-san and the villagers were talking about," Naruto murmured, smiling when he saw the man's covered head lower. "Damn, you really _are_ scary. Maybe now I'll finally be able to have a descent fight."

"Be careful what you wish for, boy," Gato spoke up over the stand-off with a confident smile in play. "The result it amounts to may leave you in a state of regret, if not complete and utter despair."

Expression twitching momentarily, Naruto's face then lit up with sudden and clear realization. "Oh, that's right!" Flexing his fingers, the blonde then slapped his hands together to form the snake seal, quickly followed by dragon and tiger. This precise combination of signs not only caught Tayuya's but also the opposition's attention, "While we're still on the subject of the fight, I think it would make things a lot more interesting if we raised the stakes a little."

Gato, familiar with the concept of ninjutsu for shinobi, reversed some more after seeing the youngster flip through the seals. "What the hell are you talking about? What are you doing?"

"Nothing much." As carefree as Naruto's response was, both Gato and Tayuya shivered from head to toe when they saw the mischievous and sinister grin suddenly spread across his face. Matters were made that much worse when he ran his tongue across his upper lip, "I'm just going to collapse this dam into the river."

"W-Wait… WHAT?!" Tayuya shouted, looking up at the boy in alarm.

"Did you really think that all I did inside your funhouse was run around, torment your employees, sabotage your lines and bust in a wall to flood the place?" Naruto asked in an almost maniacal voice that had the bad guys standing in his path visibly back peddle, all except for the samurai in black. "Hell no! I'm not that transparent, nor am I that stupid to waste time doing meaningless bullshit that can just as easily be cleaned up. I spent the first hour sprinting up and down this God-forsaken constipation from one station to the next, planting explosives in every corner I could find. I laid out over a hundred bombs throughout this wall, all set to detonate on my command."

Everybody's jaws went slack, especially Gato's.

"Oh shit," Waraji choked, looking down at his feet. "That means we're…"

His partner in the beanie growled and pointed at the antagonist. "He's bluffing! Fucking smart-aleck… there's no_ way_ he had the time to do that!"

"Are you absolutely sure about that?" Naruto asked snidely, seeing the men start sweating buckets where they were standing. "Back in my home village, just for the shits and giggles of it, I was able to hit every single person at the same time across two kilometers of suburbs in one morning with only a box of fireworks and a fuck ton of peanut butter. You should have seen the reviews I got for the stunt; I was ducking and dodging angry civilians for weeks."

Naruto recalled wanting to pull off a prank like that for months. A full day before launch was spent gathering all the materials he needed and then, in the span of about three hours, he rigged every bedroom inside of _Konohagakure's_ suburban areas to blow. Every villager within earshot of each other was rudely awoken at the crack of four by the sounds of gunfire going off under their beds, the mattresses of which were propelled feet off the ground and tossed all about the room, depending on the positioning of the charges. It didn't take whole neighborhoods to figure out who it was behind the unexpected attack, with hundreds upon hundreds of disgruntled adults setting out on a quest to collect the head of the one responsible as a trophy.

That was one of the best weekends Naruto ever had.

"Now, imagine me doing that, but with tons of explosives," the jinchuriki exclaimed.

"You sneaky little cretin," Gato growled, bringing his cane up and pointing it at the blonde. "Don't think you'll get away with this!"

"I'll definitely get away with this. You'll see," Naruto replied at level. "Fact is; I _want_ you to see me get away with this."

"Don't bullshit with me you son of a bitch! You're still on the dam! You blow it; you send us ALL to hell!" Knowing that he had him cornered with this, Gato pressed home his advantage. "Get it? Boom! Us dead. You dead. Everybody loses. Even you're not _that_ fucking crazy. Be serious for a moment!"

Blinking in confusion, Naruto then flashed the short man a sly smile, which had Tayuya leaning away at its intensity.

"What are you talking about? I _am_ serious…"

The girl looked at him in panic, "No! WAIT!"

"_**Katsu!"**_

The ground shook violently beneath both parties as one after the other in rapid succession the explosives strewn throughout the dam went off. Looking across and over the side, Gato saw the walls of his magnificent creation crack from blasts inside the structure detonating outwards, with the most intense explosion occurring just next to them. The explosion hurled black smoke and bits of concrete through the air, choking up the air space and letting everyone know that the stupidest decision that could have ever been made was made. Everyone except for Naruto and the samurai in black looked upon the rising cloud of destruction in disbelief.

"YOU LITTLE BASTARD!" Gato roared over the bombs still discharging, the world around them shaking like they were standing on top of a large, running motor. "DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU'VE DONE?"

"I sure do," Naruto shouted back, removing his hands from their seal position and pointing towards the big boss. "And by the way, the name is Naruto… Naruto Uzumaki! And don't you forget it!"

"FUCK!" Gato yelled, quickly turning heel and jumping onto the tram. The now panicking Zori and Waraji followed after him, taking the driver and passenger seats respectively. A quick retreat was needed now, the preparations of which gave the superior enough time to look back and curse the child for this outrage.

His eyes then fell upon the still stationary Crow, who had not moved since he was ordered forward and was still facing down the two kids.

"If you're not coming with us, finish him! I'll pay you double if you return with his head!" Gato ordered, to which the warrior returned with a single nod without even bothering to look back. The business owner then focused on the still grinning jinchuriki and his worried looking companion, "You'd better hope Crow kills you here and now Uzumaki. I guarantee that you will not like the life that will be waiting for you should you survive!"

"Looking forward to it!" Naruto shouted and waved.

The tram kicked into life and took off down the line, leaving behind the black assassin and its adolescent targets standing firmly upon the collapsing structure. With the explosions starting to fade and the barrier starting to give way, it became apparently clear to all those who were watching that it wouldn't be long now till the entire thing fell apart and allowed thousands of tons of river back into the lowlands.

This was what the jinchuriki had planned from the very beginning.

"Why aren't we falling?" Tayuya asked, grabbing the boy's sleeve and pulling on it. "You set off the bombs, didn't you? Why haven't we been blown sky high or straight down to hell?"

"For something this massive you'd need tons of explosive tags to completely level it. I only used whatever I had in my pockets, which wasn't even close to what you'd need to incinerate this thing," Naruto replied, smiling at the girl looking at him in astonishment.

"Th-Then… what you said back there…"

"Yeah. It was part bluff." He grinned warmly, "Don't worry, we're not going to die. I set the bombs off in specific places that will cut away the walls but leave the weight-bearing pillars intact. It's the same method I used to mess with one of the clans back in my village when I took away all the nails in their home and let the walls come apart on their own, but the frames were still held in place."

"S-So that means…" Tayuya's eyes widened in realization and a smile appeared on her face. "You set it up so that the water would drain through at a controlled rate and that the resulting flood wouldn't destroy the village."

That was smart. No… not smart. Brilliant. Though he didn't look it, Naruto was naturally gifted in the art of devastation. Where the hell had he been this entire time?

Speaking of which, the abovementioned blonde nodded toward the girl affirmatively before glaring back at their second and now main concern, which was the masked man staring both of them down. The shadow drew their eyes toward the obstacle in question and had both of them tense when the samurai stepped forward.

It was hard to ignore the shaking at their feet even while being confronted by Gato's last pro. With his last challenge yet to be dealt with, Naruto's fists clenched. "The barriers should let go in about twenty minutes. I can't guarantee that this platform won't give out as well, but I'm staying."

"Wait. You're not going to run?" Tayuya asked. Looking at his face, she could see how serious he was, which had her even more concerned for his safety. Between fighting the man in front of them and the impending doom of their foundations giving way, there only seemed to be one clear option available here. "No! Don't fight him! Let's get out of here while we still have the chance, Naruto!"

"If we run he'll follow. I'm not sure if I can fight him and protect you at the same time, and I most certainly am not going to let him hurt you," the jinchuriki stated while shrugging his arm out of her grip. "I swore to myself that I would never let any of these people hurt you ever again. Gato's real strength over others lies in those he has under his command, so that means that this whole nightmare will end once I kill _this_ man right here and now. If I don't, a lot more people are going to suffer."

Tayuya remained silent as she returned his gaze. As admiral as his actions were and his words sounded, she still felt he was being awfully stubborn and was frustrated by his resolve. Why the hell was he putting his life on the line for people he didn't know? Why did he want to fight so badly? Why was he doing all of this for them? For her?

"Why do you care so much?" Tayuya finally asked.

Naruto smirked confidently, "Because I do. Because it's _my_ choice. I want to do this. That's all you need to know." He looked back at her and nodded over his shoulder. "Go. I'll meet you on the other side of the river."

Feeling the strength behind his words and the power in his expression, the redhead was compelled to move by them. Whether it was his intensity, his determination, his will or the image he conveyed when he spoke to her she didn't know. All she knew was that she could trust him, no matter how impossible or how dangerous the situation seemed.

After a few paces back and a few moments of contemplation, Tayuya responded to his command with a few simple words. The girl smirked, "Don't you dare lose to him!"

Naruto grinned. "No problem."

With that, Tayuya turned and ran as fast as her legs would allow, looking back for one brief moment to see the jinchuriki smile at her before glancing back toward his foe. _"Give him hell, shithead."_

Naruto's gaze fixed squarely on his target.

Several moments of silence passed between the boy and the samurai before either side dared to say anything, which to no surprise started with the ever energetic prankster always eager to banter with his rivals. "You look really tough for a scrubby old bird. I can tell you're much different from those other jerks I fought earlier today. Hopefully that's not all for show." His only response came in the lowering of the man's head, which had the jinchuriki chuckle, "Not much of a talker huh? That's cool. But I usually like a little back and forth with my opponents. It makes fights like these more entertaining."

The ground continued to shake as more and more of the barrier beneath them gave out.

Flicking his wrist, a kunai slipped into the blonde's grip. Upon securing his weapon of choice Naruto assumed a crouching stance. His opponent had a sword and judging from how calmly he was presenting himself he definitely knew what he was doing.

This Crow had experience. The proof was in the aura.

"Well… come at me," Naruto said while smirking, "Let's see what this terrible Crow demon can do."

The samurai tilted his head, his expression hidden behind a veil of straw and shadow. Was he put off by the boy's confidence? Thrown by his smirk? Offended? Naruto couldn't tell.

Then, when it appeared as though the samurai was having second thoughts, without warning, he sprang into action.

There was about a spread of fifteen meters distance between both the jinchuriki and his foe, so it was no surprise Naruto's eyes bugged out of their sockets when, in a flash, the swordsman suddenly appeared standing directly in front of him. The black hollow slit of the basket that was his face floated directly in front of the blonde's widening eyes as the samurai's hand began to draw his sword from its scabbard in lightning fast time, alerting the shocked youngster to the danger.

"WHOA!" Naruto cried out, swaying back as far as he could when a streak of light carved through the air where his body once was. The assailant had drawn his weapon in a textbook Iai motion straight from the sheath with the intent on ending his target's life in a single blow. Only the academy student's quick reflexes and natural flexibility saved him from being bifurcated.

Naruto glared up at the man still in attack position towering over him, his body bent backwards at 90 degrees._ "Holy squirrel-fucking shit, this guy is fast!"_

Reacting quickly to the dark assassin glaring down at him, the blonde bent backwards even more, slamming a hand into the ground and performing a flip, at the same time spearing a kick straight up to his foe's chin. The samurai leant away from the attack and lashed out with a glancing blow. The youngster slipped away and made a hasty retreat.

Naruto swore he had never backpedaled faster than he ever had in his life when the samurai came dashing after him, easily catching him with his ungodly speed. _"Son of a bitch, he's REALLY fast! How the fuck is someone wearing a bathrobe able to move that fast?"_ Grinning briefly at the prospect of the fight, Naruto leant back to avoid another incoming slash, ducking low a split second later when the man returned with a second strike for his head. The dark assailant pursued him left and right when the jinchuriki attempted to shake him off in his fallback with a zigzagging motion, but the older warrior was persistent. He stuck to him like his shadow and lashed at him at every given opportunity.

Side-stepping a full circle, Naruto freaked out when another blow came from below and he was forced to jump away. He hit the breaks the moment both feet slammed into the ground and he skidded to a stop several meters away. Though the blonde managed to buy himself a few valuable seconds of air, it wasn't long till the light on his feet Crow came charging at him again, katana at the ready.

"_Okay, running isn't going to get me anywhere and trying to shake him off is doing me nothing. His speed is great and he's got good eyesight. Damn it." _Naruto gritted his teeth, stepping back little by little as the man advanced. Arms hanging at his sides, the jinchuriki began awkwardly swaying his upper body from side to side, picking up the tempo as he took into account his opponent's footwork. _"He likes using that sword of his. If that's all he knows, then let's test the waters."_

Crow lashed at him with another strike, but Naruto returned fire by ducking under it and throwing a swinging hook. The swordsman elbowed his strike away and fell back, lashing upward at the kid with his blade, only to see his nimble little opponent leap right over it, enter his defensive circle, and slam a right kick straight into his stomach. The blow caused a loud crunching sound to echo out, which sent the samurai blasting backwards. Though it looked like a clean blow, his sudden flight away from his opponent was mostly out of surprise.

Upon sliding to a stop, the masked samurai looked up sharply. Even though his face was covered and he didn't utter anything audible, his actions still clearly conveyed his shock.

Hands still hanging at his sides in a wide stance, Naruto smiled and began swaying again.

"_He's ridiculously fast, but I can match his speed with my tricky moves. I knew all that running around would pay off one day," _Naruto thought happily before charging at the samurai, who immediately rushed at him in kind, sword cocked. The blonde frowned as he closed the distance, ducking low when he telegraphed a swing aimed for his head. _"I need to land some body blows. That'll stop his feet."_

The blonde rammed into the man's stomach with a shoulder tackle, sending the fierce Crow off his feet and sending him through the air with an unconventional battering technique. Naruto traveled with him and hammered several body shots into his gut, seconds before the samurai countered by bringing his sword over his head and striking down. The small attacker rolled right out of the way when the weapon speared the ground, getting back to his feet and going airborne when the samurai followed with a sweeping slash immediately afterwards; the sword missing him by inches.

While in the air Naruto spun around and tossed a barrage of shuriken at his target, the projectiles separating and converging on the warrior moments later. Certain of a hit, Naruto's grin widened…

But shock overcame him instead when the samurai suddenly vanished in a shadowy blur.

"_What the hell?"_

The moment Naruto's foot touched the ground the swordsman reappeared right in front of him with a downward stabbing blow. Eyes widened further as the child swung his body around to meet his opponent.

"_Son of a bitch, this again?!"_ the jinchuriki thought while ducking. After avoiding the attack, he backpedaled quickly, dodging and weaving under flashes of katana coming after him. The streaks of the sword slicing through the wind at high speed filled the air around the blonde in a terrifying display of cutting speed as he swayed and leapt away from the warrior. The assault was so fast there wasn't even any time to blink or breathe. Naruto was forced into a fallback state with a frustrated look on his face. _"Shit! Shit! When do I counter? HOW! He's gotten even fas-WHOA!"_ Even his thoughts were cut short when more attacks came pouring after him.

Upon being pushed back several yards down the dam, the jinchuriki drew a kunai from his pouch and began blocking hits. Sparks flew through the air when he traded parries with the samurai until Naruto was violently thrown back by a full-power swing that connected with his guard. He flew a good distance, flipped a few times to gain control of his flight before eventually skidding to a stop when he managed to slam both of his feet into the concrete road.

"Bloody hell," Naruto gritted his teeth, his legs shaking from taking the hit._ "His swings aren't just blindingly fast, they're also unbelievably heavy. He'll cut clean through me if I stop for even a second, but he's not giving me any time to weave hand seals."_ He looked down to see his knees trembling, barely keeping him up despite his adrenaline rush. _"The damage is already getting to my legs. I have to end this quick or I'll be in trouble!"_

Another explosion rocked the dam they were standing on as another outlet for the water in the lake behind them was formed. Little by little, the massive swell being held back started feeding directly into the land once more, but in spite of this tremendous success, the whole liberation plot that Naruto was going for would mean nothing if he didn't defeat the final element of the village's despair.

The swordsman, once again prepping himself for another attack, was the long-arm of Gato's force here. If the weapon of the tyrant used to deal physical pain upon the villagers remained, then the people would never be free of this nightmare. It would continue to come back to haunt them again and again, until there was no one left. This vision of a future filled with pain and torment, was a future Naruto was not going to allow. He was determined to finish his opponent right here and now.

Baring his teeth, Naruto charged in. _"Let's punch it out! COME ON!"_ He tossed his kunai, which was swatted away by his foe before the boy leapt at him with his right corked back.

The moment the jinchuriki came in swinging, the samurai sliced right into him with a sideward blow, carving right through his waist. Naruto passed by the warrior with a shocked expression and his eyes glazed over, a spray of blood occurring moments later. However, when the assailant was certain he'd killed the boy with the decisive blow, the falling child suddenly went up in a puff of smoke shortly before a log fell to the ground out from the cloud, cleaved in two.

The clattering of wood had Crow's attention immediately fixed on the replacement in alarm, a distraction long enough for the real Naruto to suddenly drop down at him from above, kunai in hand.

The boy cried out when he landed on the samurai's back, straddling his shoulders before ramming the knife into his neck. The tussle that followed involved the robed assassin attempting to throw the little hitchhiker off of him, while Naruto continued to bury the knife deeper and deeper without pause. The sound of squealing could be heard all around as the blade drove home, a grin coming across the boy's face before he was suddenly grabbed by the hair and thrown across the dam.

Tumbling over the concrete, the jinchuriki slid to a stop on all fours and glared up, bleeding from the head and lip.

"What?" Naruto shouted, his astonished gaze locking on as the masked warrior ripped the knife from his neck and tossed it to the ground at his feet. _"I hit a vital point! I know I did! Why the hell isn't he going down?"_

Even though he'd just been stabbed in the throat, the man just staggered towards him with his sword at the ready. He was clearly wounded, but he wasn't showing any signs of _being_ wounded. There was no waver in his step, nor was there any form of outcry in his vocals. No. He just swaggered towards the boy with that haunting vacant stare fixed through his basket mask. Fuck, Naruto couldn't even see his damn expression and tell whether he was in pain. Was he even human?

Grinding his teeth together irritably, Naruto drew another kunai and rushed at his opponent, but the samurai took off, leaping through the air and landing on the railing of the dam. The jinchuriki pursued, jumping after him and landing knife first in a diving drive attack. Their blades clashed in a shower of sparks when they began a deadly dance back and forth across the dam's upper level. Shortly afterwards, during one of their reengagements, after jumping around his foe to try and get into one of his blind spots the jinchuriki was suddenly driven away by Crow's swinging blade and forced to leap up onto a higher platform. That was until the entire section was blasted to bits when the samurai ran his sword through it, the force of which caused it to explode and shower the area in debris and rubble.

Naruto landed amongst the remains of the stand and glared up to see his foe running along the railing a level above, sword drawn and eyes fixed on him. Even from this distance the youngster could feel his intensity as the dam they were on was further shaken by another wall giving in, and more water was sent cascading into the valley.

The blonde took another stance.

"You're no ordinary samurai, but that's cool with me!" the Uzumaki shouted at him, cocking his right arm back, kunai held firm. He too began running alongside his opponent while the warrior continued to hold the high ground, "I'm no ordinary kid either! So come at me with everything you've got, because I won't be giving you the satisfaction of an easy win!"

Crow did as requested and lunged down at him with blinding speed. The warrior attacked the boy with ferocity and agility not like before. His sword carved through the air left and right, attempting to cut the boy as he danced around him using his signature awkward movements. The blonde's footwork and fleetness allowed him to stay just inches ahead of his target as he lashed at him with attacks continuously and without fault.

While dancing across the trembling barrier, Naruto decided to dive in for an offensive himself. He jumped around his opponent who sliced at him with his sword, throwing kicks and slashes with his kunai to try and sneak in some damage. It was an overwhelming assault that drove the collected swordsman back, who continued to swing at him but couldn't due to the difference in range.

While Crow took advantage of the middle-range whenever he attacked Naruto, the jinchuriki neutralized his sword by rushing into close-range whenever the opportunity presented itself and assaulted the samurai with a combination of speed and raw quickness.

Leaping over the man's arms when he overshot a slash, Naruto propped a hand on his opponent's forearm and balanced himself on the extended limb until Crow came back around with another violent attack. The jinchuriki spun around the swinging limb, taking the arm into a hold and locking it behind Crow's back, while expertly wrapping his legs around his neck.

When Naruto attempted to apply pressure, the swordsman staggered back before ramming the hitchhiker into a barrier… or tried to at least. Naruto leapt clear from his shoulders and landed on the ground several feet out. Once the samurai had rid himself of the extra weight, he lunged in again, sword held out at his side for another downward attack.

The jinchuriki swayed from side to side, eyes scrutinizing the path of the incoming move and readying his left fist. He positioned it down a little so that it was propped at his waist.

"_Let's see… it's a direct attack from middle-range. The motion is quite wide… and there's a sizable gap between his arms when he swings,"_ Naruto thought._ "So…"_

The moment the samurai swung in and across, the jinchuriki slid forward and rammed what looked like a cross between a hook and an uppercut right between the two arms holding the handle of the sword. He managed to hit him from below and sway back from the blade, but the power he got from the attack ran straight into his chin and blasted Crow's head back with an almighty 'crack.'

A textbook three-quarter uppercut.

Naruto smirked and quickly leapt away when the samurai staggered and swung blindly with his sword, obviously disoriented. _"I can hit you when you come in with a big move. Got yah!"_

But it wouldn't keep him at bay for long.

As expected, Crow came back around with a shake of his head and, as if he had received no damage from his opponent throughout the fight whatsoever, charged straight back into battle.

It was a good trade-off between two strong warriors and an awesome display of precision, ferocity and power. The fight looked like one that would last into the later afternoon…

…until the inevitable happened.

The dam began to crumble. More and more explosions rocked the interior and more gaps were blasted into it. Soon, there were four massive, gaping holes punched into the barrier along its entire length, allowing torrents of water to spill out. It was fed evenly into the dried up countryside sure, but the terrible conditions the destruction it was bringing to those on top was making life miserable for both.

Growing exhausted from being attack repeatedly by his foe, Naruto started taking on some serious damage. Misjudging some swings and unable to fight back against the samurai's raw speed and power for a prolonged period, the blonde got cut up badly when he was grazed by the weapon. He attempted to block a low blow, but that carved across his chest and sent him spinning, a spray of blood clouding the air.

Naruto cried out a second time when he was deftly kicked across the face and sent tumbling across the concrete road before ramming into one of its side railings. Spitting out blood, the blonde wiped his face off and glared exhaustedly up at his foe, standing a distance from him in a defensive stance. The samurai had less damage then he had, but the jinchuriki was still determined and beyond calling it quits at this point.

He never gave up, not to the likes of a person like HIM!

Struggling into a crouched position, the boy smirked, "You sure hit hard like I expected you would. You take damage and send it right back at your opponents without missing a beat." Stumbling forwards, Naruto ducked in and ground his feet into the floor. "But you don't hit like you mean it… AND TO ME THAT MEANS YOU'RE HOLDING BACK!" The blonde sprang forward at his foe with an incredible leap and unbelievable dashing speed, swinging his right arm over his left shoulder before carving upwards into the samurai's unguarded face when he bolted right into his defensive circle.

The warrior was too surprised to respond with a counter when the basket across his face was shaved through, splinters and straw flying into the air. Crow staggered backwards in astonishment, grabbing the front of his mask momentarily to assess the damage.

As Naruto backed away from his hearty lunge, he saw to his surprise Crow's body begin to shake with anger at being struck the way he was. This reaction came seconds before he suddenly snapped into life again and rushed at the boy with a renewed flurry of attacks and an unexpected battle cry.

"RAAARRGGGHHHHH!" the assassin bellowed in a deep, gravelly voice worn away from having not spoken in years.

Naruto fell back in shock, using his kunai to block a new series of wild attacks. The sword strikes came in even faster than before, forcing him to dodge more awkwardly and block at unexpected angles. Sparks flew as the katana tore up the ground beneath them from the blind fury of the assault, driving the jinchuriki further and further into the middle of the dam. Though Naruto took advantage of the samurai's anger by landing a few well-aimed kicks into his forward leg to throw him off and striking the body whenever he was open, he was quickly driven off by his enraged opponent.

Crow's anger was truly terrifying. Naruto tried misdirecting him with some flicker jabs at distance, but the sword cutting through the air at unexpected degrees kept the boy from landing them effectively.

There was absolutely no regard shown towards their surroundings, nor was there any concern shown towards his wellbeing.

Crow now had several kunai impaling him, but he wasn't stopping, not even for a moment.

"CRAP!" Naruto shouted when he tried to block a driving blow from the katana. Sparks flashed across his face as he skidded along the ground, trying to hold back the train plowing into him before the samurai pressuring his guard slammed a fist across his face. The jinchuriki was sent spiraling back at the force with blood flying from his mouth, before he was suddenly struck upwards by a blow from the sword. "GAH!" A quick flip through the air followed by a rough landing across the concrete was the jinchuriki's reward.

Clutching the scars bleeding out from his chest, Naruto looked up just in time to block another sword strike from above. The blow drove down on top of him as he attempted to hold it back and recover, his whole body shaking from the effort before he was kicked across the face again and sent crashing into the dam's railing for a second time.

However, instead of being allowed to fall against the wall, Naruto was suddenly picked up and plowed into it by Crow grabbing him by the neck and driving him straight through it. After mercilessly being pushed through several feet of solid wall that shattered like glass against him, Naruto soon found himself being held over the dam's lake on the other side.

The jinchuriki choked out blood as he was throttled by the vice-like grip around his neck, legs dangling uselessly over the side and hands clawing away at the sleeve. Vision blurring from the damage, the child looked towards the masked warrior holding him up, where he could see the anger through the shadow of his mask.

"_I… c-can't breathe… damn it!"_ Naruto managed to squeeze out in his head, gasping desperately as the grip on him was tightened. He looked down towards the raging currents below, where he could see mass amounts of water still emptying itself into the lands beyond the barrier. _"It can't end like this… no…"_ Shaking his head defiantly, Naruto struggled to glare back at Crow to see the menace draw his sword back in preparation to drive it through his stomach, to finish the fight once and for all._ "Not here! Not to him! NO WAY!"_

Despite the pain, the crushing vice and the hell waiting for him thousands of feet below, Naruto mustered a grin through bloody teeth before forming a familiar hand seal directly in front of his opponent's face.

He was having so much fun having his teeth kicked out of his mouth and bones broken that he almost forgot about the new jutsu he created.

"FOOLED YAH!" Naruto exclaimed before slapping his right against Crow's chest._** "Jet Hand!"**_

The samurai looked a little surprised at the hand seal. But just before he could retaliate with his sword, the assassin was suddenly blasted back by what felt like a herd of charging rhinos running into him. Crow spiraled through the air at breakneck speed across the width of the dam before slamming into a concrete base. The tower of rock exploded in a shower of rubble and debris, choking the entire area with dust.

Naruto managed to latch onto the ledge of the railing Crow had been standing on once he'd freed himself and fell from the killer's grip. Panting heavily from the attempt, as soon as he was up on safe and solid ground, the boy glared up towards the spot his opponent had crashed and stopped mid-flight.

Sure he'd intended to send him packing in one go, but he didn't expect him to stop before he could even take off. Either way, this was great…

A chance was presented to him!

Throwing his right arm out, Naruto cocked back his wrist so that a familiar air tube was able to appear.

By the time the dust settled on the crash site Crow had managed to pull himself out of the pile of debris and back onto the dam's highway. Robes torn, katana missing and looking dazed beyond belief, the samurai attempted to reacquaint himself with his surroundings, only to see the boy he was fighting with charge at him across the way. The assassin was too slow to react to the next attack.

When it looked like the motion for shuriken being thrown just feet from him, a loud crack of air was heard instead before the samurai's vision was blinded by the horrifying sight of red, green and yellow. The warrior staggered backwards in shock when the entire upper portion of his body including his face was splattered with multi-colored paint, which only served as a distraction for Naruto to leap clear at him from in front and ram both his feet into his chest.

Crow staggered even further when Naruto landed against him, the boy driving another kunai straight into his neck and burying it deep to make sure it stuck. Knowing this wouldn't be enough, the blonde then reared his right fist back before slamming it straight into the widened gap of the mask on the individual's face. The gash he managed to land across the basket before helped serve this purpose.

"OPEN WIDE!" Naruto shouted, ripping his hand out just in time to avoid the explosion that followed.

The side of the samurai's cloaked face was blasted open by a shower of gold sparklers from a firework bomb being shoved right into his ugly mug. Though it should have served to piss the enemy off rather than cause any damage, the shrapnel and phosphorous laced with it did more than its fair share. Soon after the pellet detonated, the samurai started screaming out in agony as his face was pretty much melted inside his straw veil.

Naruto sat astride the man's chest as the samurai clawed at his searing face and staggered towards the edge, thrashing about like a mad bull… until the boy realized where they were actually walking, which pretty much had the jinchuriki flip out in panic.

"OH CRAP!" the blonde shouted, at the exact same time another massive tremor rocked the dam they were on as the final causeways for the water were blasted out.

Torrents and torrents of water continued to be let out of the lake, which battered the support beams and whatever sections of Gato's great dam remained. This basically meant the entire structure shook from bottom to top, which resulted in a lot of unintended portions being chipped away. In this particular case: the section Naruto and his opponent were standing on.

Before the jinchuriki could leap clear, the ground beneath the staggering samurai gave way, which meant both of them began to fall over the side. Naruto yelped in shock as they started to cascade with the section of concrete, gravity working its magic and dragging them into the hell of rapids beneath them.

But of course, being known to think well on his feet, just as they were both beginning to plummet, Naruto managed to throw his right arm up and procured the hook from his gauntlet. With it, at the very last second available, he caught onto the jagged edge of the dam that had allowed them to fall and remain fixed to its host, biting hard and holding as other chunks of the monstrosity fell away.

Good thing he managed to grab onto a steel frame.

Just as it seemed the worst was over and he was beginning to breathe easy, Naruto suddenly felt a violent tug on his body and he glared down. There, dangling from his right leg, the boy saw Crow hanging from him and glaring up at him through the smoke lifting off of his messed up face.

It would only be a few seconds afterwards that Naruto realized he had managed to burn his opponent's mask clean off of him. So when the smoldering cleared and the jinchuriki was able to get a good look at his expression, and the raging waters far below still tearing away at the dam, Naruto saw a scarred man around his forties with grimy black hair and red eyes looking back at him. His face already had so many old war wounds and gashes on it, the burns and shrapnel lodged into the right side of his face from the sparkler bomb seemed like a welcome bit of make-up to his already ravaged visage.

Naruto was so shocked by the man's appearance he could only stare in silence.

What came as an even bigger surprise though, about several seconds later, instead of seeing Crow raise a weapon to strike at him or more anger well-up in his eyes promising a painful death, the jinchuriki saw the guy smile? Sure it came shortly after getting a good view of his stony glare and Naruto half-figured he was hallucinating from loss of blood; the jinchuriki was still met with a pleasant grin.

It was almost like the assassin was thanking him, which was weird considering he was an enemy ordered to kill him. Didn't samurai abide by some sort of code of honor or pride or something?

The unmasked warrior Crow nodded to the jinchuriki upon getting his attention before closing his eyes. The moment he did so, the grip around the boy's ankle slackened until the man was only hanging by a couple of fingers, literally.

"Good fight…"

Once those words were uttered, the broken warrior relinquished his hold completely.

Naruto reached out to grab him, but his instinctive response came too late and the boy could only watch as Crow, resigned to his fate, plummeted into the raging torrents of water below and vanished into the foam and jagged rapids. In the blink of an eye, he was gone.

The jinchuriki's hand fell limp after becoming fully aware of what had happened and allowed his body to hang there from the ledge, watching the river flow on by and begin to level out. After allowing some minutes to pass, in which the blonde was able to reflect on his battle, Naruto breathed out exhaustedly and, through half-lidded eyes, looked downstream to see the massive canal completely full.

A smile came to his tired face. "Good fight."

The last of the debris from the dam was chipped away, leaving behind a ruined relic of a tyrant and a monument of the destruction caused by only one boy.

While Naruto dangled where he was for a little while longer, staring down at the now calm river flowing through the ruined structure, the birds Swift and Raven up on the railing above him looked down over the side.

Having watched the entire situation unfold and upon witnessing the death of its master, the crow sitting beside the swallow cawed once out of habit, ruffled its feathers, and then took off into the sky. Swift watched its fellow bystander fly up into the clouds, following him with her gaze as he disappeared over the horizon.

This event signified the end of the fight and the liberation of the_ Land of the Great River._

OOO

**Meanwhile…**

Up in her farm and looking relatively disgruntled from all the grinding of herbs she was doing, Hanare was attempting to fill out one of her latest client orders from the stock she was able to conjure up from whatever harvest she could. Though there was not much she could gain from the crops, at least the dried up seeds had to count for something. They could be sold for a small bit in other places where they were rare, especially from this country, but she was wondering if her efforts were really going to be enough.

Nevertheless, while she was working her magic on her resources and trying to stretch out the amount as much as she could, an earth-shaking tremor coursed through the entirety of her house. The disturbance rattled fixtures and moved furniture a few centimeters out of place, startling Hanare out of her seat and forcing her towards the door.

"What in the world was that?"

Throwing the entrance open the farmer looked towards the dam further up the valley. When she looked across, expecting to see mists, construction or something else ordinary taking place, her eyes widened in surprise when she saw massive explosions rip across the surface of the great white barrier. These blasts punched a hole into the bottom half at the center of the wall, allowing water to come pouring out at an easy rate.

The next half-hour would prove to be a great show for the farmer, as one after another more gaps were blown along the entire length of the dam. The holes appeared in every space between the main weight-bearing pillars, which allowed the water to come out in a controlled flow and fill up the dried-up riverbed. By some otherworldly force, the entire world on the suffering side of the barrier began to come alive again, as water was once more allowed to flow freely through the country.

Blinking in disbelief and thinking back on the day she'd been having, Hanare eventually realized what must have happened and smiled. An amused chuckle escaped her lips as she leaned against her porch's support beam.

"That little runt… he actually did it," Hanare laughed, shaking her head. "The crazy little fool actually did it…"

Hey! Her day might just get better yet…

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

* * *

**Author's Note:** Wow. That was awesome. I always wanted to chronicle a journey like this for a character, and what character to do it for than for Naruto. I just can't stop thinking about how much damage Naruto could actually cause if he used more of that creative genius of his. Pulling pranks on shinobi and getting away with it, out running Chunin and all that… why doesn't he put those skills to good use.

Basically the chapter highlights the fact that when Naruto thinks up something, it's usually something big. Like when he was stuck inside the Four-Tail's mouth and he had to figure out a way to get out. BAM! He creates tons of shadow clones and makes the Four-Tail's throw him up. I found that both hilarious and awesome, and I think this chapter illustrates his devious, dangerous mind that much more.

Gato was a small time foe here. It's already implied he's already taken over Wave, so it's basically a two year thing in the making. There was no one absurdly strong Naruto faced here, just mercenaries and the last guy. Genin can beat up gangsters and mercenaries in their dozens, if the filler episodes and opening sequences in the anime don't say that.

Hope you enjoyed this latest installment. :)


	5. The Beginning of A New

**NARUTO**

**Drifting**

_The Beginning of A New_

After managing to haul his ass back onto the dam's main highway Naruto was quickly able to recover the sword dropped by the fallen Crow, the masked samurai he had just managed to defeat in combat, by the skin of his teeth. Sheathing the weapon into its scabbard, which he also found hidden amongst the rubble, the blonde then turned his sights toward the quickest route off of the ruined structure that was once Gato's stronghold and staggered his way down the main road. Clutching at the deep wound across his chest and every other area of considerable bruising and discomfort, Naruto promptly worked out his next point of interest to be the village down in the valley below.

As tolerant as he was towards severe injuries, he still needed to get some proper medical treatment.

Seriously. He had never taken a beating this badly in his life and his head was harder than a cannonball. That samurai was one tough bastard, despite not knowing any ninjutsu or techniques that even required the use of chakra. The guy was just a common thug and vagrant, but with an uncommon skill set. This was definitely a battle the boy was not going to forget anytime soon, and for a couple of good reasons.

One: the whole ordeal had been a whopping reality check. His adventure through this small land and the battles he'd fought showed that there were people outside of _Konohagakure_ that were really powerful in many different ways, as well as cruel, terrifying, merciless, and were just as tough as _he_ was resilient. Naruto came to the realization that if he didn't step up his game from here and started taking things like this a little more seriously; he was going to continue taking a beating on every mission that he went out on.

A little assistance would have been welcome too.

As a result, the jinchuriki vowed that he needed to work even harder to make better use of his skills so that he could avoid a trial like this again in the future.

As for the second issue: that Crow was one of the first people Naruto had actually managed to defeat and kill in a fight. Sure it was an indirect kill, but after his little demolition performance on the dam Naruto was certain that he was responsible for more than the taking of a single life today, and not just his. There were probably people that had still been inside the dam when he destroyed it and, summing up everything that had transpired today, that meant he too was a killer, an assassin…

A shinobi.

Naruto actually chuckled at this.

He was a damn academy student and he was already killing people. Though it would look good on his rep and it eased his conscious knowing that they were all working for the bad guy, it still gave him a funny feeling deep inside.

Anyway, upon resolving to work even harder than before to become stronger and being reunited with his companion Swift flying over from her resting spot to land on his shoulder, Naruto dragged the rest of his wounded hide to the other side of the causeway. Once he made it there and came within sight of the gates that would get him off of the crumbling structure, he was met with a very pleasant surprise.

The sounds of clapping filling his ears had Naruto look up in bewilderment, where from his limp state he saw Tayuya standing in the middle of the road and behind her a whole crowd of villagers. The entire town downstream had all turned out to greet him after hearing the first explosion ring out and, upon seeing the boy's return and his bewildered eyes fall upon them, they welcomed him back with smiles of approval and a hearty applause. The red haired musician joined them with a grin spread across her face as she felt the praise and gratitude from the liberated villagers pour over her head and down onto him.

Naruto looked between each individual cheering him in confusion, seconds before he was suddenly tackled by Tayuya rushing over to him and 'glomping' him in the tightest hug she could muster.

"You stupid, crazy jerk," the red head whispered into his ear before shoving him away. She glared at him with tears in her eyes, "I was worried to death. When I saw you get picked up by that guy…"

"Yeah… I was… kind of getting my ass kicked out there, huh?" Naruto chuckled while rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "The guy was WAY stronger than me. I didn't want to use my new jutsu on him unless I was sure I could get him with it, so I waited for the best opening possible. Plus he had a sword. If I stopped moving for a second and didn't use my _**Jet Hand**_ technique when I did, I would have been killed for sure."

"Well, lucky for you, you weren't, shithead," Tayuya exclaimed while punching him in the chest. The boy winced from the pain, but then watched the worried girl do a complete turnaround and begin checking his injuries.

While the musician fussed over the massive gash across his breast, Naruto was soon approached by the still cheering villagers headed by their town elder. Hiro appeared before the two children with his staff firmly in hand, to which he then bowed towards the blonde haired boy and silently beckoned the crowd into a quiet hush.

"Thank you so very much," the elder exclaimed in visible delight, giving the jinchuriki a warm gaze as did every other man, woman and child present, "Truly. Words cannot even begin to express how much I appreciate what you've done for all of us."

"Aww, shucks," Naruto waved a hand with a painful chuckle. The bruising in his side and the cut across his chest was really biting him. He even had to lean on Tayuya to stop from falling over from all of the damage and fatigue he'd sustained in his fight. "It was nothing. I just wanted to help."

"And you did a fine job. A fine job indeed. You drove Gato from this land and defeated his empire here," Hiro spoke again with closed eyes and a happy gleam on his face. "We are forever in your debt."

"To the invincible stranger!" a bar keeper from the crowd shouted.

"The boy in orange!"

"To the_ Land of the Great River's_ savior!" a woman cried out as well.

"We thank you so much!"

"Yes! Thank you!"

More cheers rang up from the people and a small chant was even started amongst the crowd. The downpour of praise had Naruto blushing and grinning in embarrassment, coaxing several chuckles from him as he bowed to the numerous groups of grateful villagers surrounding him.

It was while accepting their thanks he then focused his attention back on another matter, which was the sword he was still carrying.

Taking the sheathed weapon into two hands, he held it out in front of him to show to the elder.

"This was from that Crow guy," Naruto stated with a pleased smile, watching as the old man stroked his beard and analyzed the blade carefully. "He fell into the rapids and drowned. Even a man like him wouldn't have been able to survive a fall like that, and into a torrent as well. His body might wash up further downstream if you go look for it."

Hiro nodded in understanding and leaned further forward. Upon inspecting the sheathed sword up close, he then looked at the child smiling up at him. "You do realize that on top of the reward we wish to give you for saving our country, should Crow's body turn up somewhere on the banks, you are also entitled to the reward for _his_ bounty. That is five million and more…"

Naruto lowered the weapon in surprise. "Wait a sec…" He waved his hands in front of him, appearing startled. "Bounty? Rewards? For saving you guys? Oh, no… don't worry about it." The blonde folded his arms and looked away stubbornly, earning surprised blinks from the entire crowd, the elder and Tayuya. "No way. I can't accept a reward. Not for that. You don't need to."

"B-But…" Hiro spoke up, extending a hand in earnest, "Surely we must find some way of compensating you. This village and country owes you a great deal."

Tayuya gazed at Naruto in astonishment, her eyes shimmering in admiration as she looked at the defiant look drawn upon his face. _"He's so selfless and humble…"_ The sight of his firm state on the matter had her smile.

"Nope!" Naruto shook his head again, earning more slack-jawed expressions from the villagers. "Can't do it and you can't make me."

Hiro, murmuring uncomfortably, withdrew his hand and placed it behind his back. This was going to take something else to convince the boy otherwise. After all, the elder was a man of honor and would go to the ends of the earth to see that even the smallest of issues was settled. He simply could not leave the one alone.

Clearing his throat, he stared down at the boy thoughtfully. "Nevertheless, even if you reject our first offer we must find some way of repaying you for all of the kindness you have showed us. If you need anything for… say… your journey back home or for your friends perhaps… please… feel free to ask."

Naruto continued to keep his gaze locked elsewhere.

However, once the words of the elder's insistence finally managed to sink in, the blonde looked back towards the townspeople and the old man contemplatively. He meditated on their words for a moment, allowing some time to consider both his current status as well as Tayuya, whom he could see was still dressed in ragged clothing and looking incredibly worn from a life filled with hardship. With their current conditions taken into consideration, the jinchuriki eventually settled on a request he'd hoped would settle all accounts and glanced back at the village elder and his company with a smile.

"When you put it that way, there _are_ a couple of things I would like," Naruto exclaimed while petting the swallow perched on his shoulder on the head. "If it's not too much trouble for you guys…"

Hiro beamed down at him. "You may ask for anything you desire. My people and I will do everything in our power to see that your wishes are fulfilled."

Grinning, Naruto then raised a hand and tapped his finger against the sword he was still holding. "Then… would it be possible to get a hold of someone I can cash this in to?"

XXX

**Five days later…**

The bounty on Crow's head was known all around for being ridiculously high for an ordinary mercenary. It was surprising to a lot of people because he wasn't the leader of any gang, wasn't of pure or noble blood, didn't possess any special abilities or was insanely strong either. Oh no. Crow was just your typical wanderer, freelance assassin and vagrant for hire. He wasn't actually a samurai; he just knew how to fight like them and use their moves, so calling him your everyday common thug was cutting it a little short. Of course, upon further inquiry into his history Naruto eventually found out the main reason why the guy's bounty was so absurdly large in the first place, and that was because he had been incredibly hard to catch up until now.

The guy had always stuck to the shadows, hiding in the inner-most circles of criminal organizations, performing odd jobs for them and carrying out missions to their fullest without fail. He killed swiftly and silently like a shinobi, earned his cut, and then moved on. Additionally, unlike other typical killers, because he lacked certain personality qualities like an ANBU and was so committed to his jobs, he was never hesitant with any of his targets, which Naruto found out the hard way when he fought him. He had definitely been a highly successful run-of-the-mill claw hopper, and it was in a single afternoon Naruto managed to bag him fair and square.

The sole reason the boy had so much trouble against him throughout their battle was that he fought the guy head to head. Unlike with the three kunoichi he fought weeks earlier and with Jako, he didn't have trees, brush or buildings to hide behind in collaboration with any of his tricky moves, so in a way he was only fighting at fifty percent effectiveness.

A win was a win either way, so in the end Naruto walked off with not only the guy's sword in hand but also a valuable lesson about future contests.

Sure enough, just as the jinchuriki told the villagers, Crow's body washed up on shore a few kilometers downstream of the massive river. The corpse was brought back to the village, thoroughly examined and verified to be the assassin that Naruto had slain. When taken to the local hospital to have the autopsy performed though, the coroner received quite a shock at the amount of damage the guy had to his internal organs and outer body, and most of these weren't even from his fight with Naruto the day before or the results of the fall.

By his estimate, the guy should have died ages ago. The wounds Crow had sustained to his person should have left him dead on the side of a road in a country nowhere near here, but against all odds and defying every medical law in the book, the assassin had managed to keep himself alive through a steady diet of chakra and self-mutilation. His now mangled form devoid of all life showed everyone in the building that he had been incredibly hard-wearing above his superb swordsmanship skills.

By end of the day though, Crow was confirmed dead and cremated. As a reward for his successful kill, Naruto was paid the full bounty by the village leaders, who were able to reclaim all of the town's stolen valuables and treasures from the mansion Gato had built alongside the dam. The vaults were emptied, money was swiftly returned to the people, and order was slowly restored to the country. With most of Gato's men locked up and the 'general' himself absent, it was safe for the previously disbanded local guard under the daimyo to return and begin rounding up any crooks still adrift. Security points were set up all over the place to ensure that law and order was properly re-established and traffic was able to run smoothly once more.

Naruto had to give the people credit for a speedy recovery.

A lot of the companies previously under Gato's heel were taken back by the original owners, particularly the water and electrical plants. Since the man had fled and taken nothing of importance with him in his rush to escape the wrath of the orange wearing devil Naruto, it left a lot of properties needing to be reclaimed. It was a sure welcome relief for the starving populace.

Naruto on the other hand was able to settle with Hiro and the villagers, who celebrated his victory the entire night following the beginning of the country's climb to recovery. In the morning after, all the jinchuriki requested for his actions was for Crow's bounty and nothing more. With it, he did something completely unexpected and gave almost all of it to Tayuya. This decision had everybody present at the time stunned and flabbergasted, especially the young musician herself.

He also bought her new clothes, sandals, a backpack, and food, plenty enough to spoil the befuddled girl. Even after all that, there was still enough left over for Tayuya to buy a property and live a comfortable life for the next few years without need for work. Naruto took most of the funds out of his own pocket to treat her.

All of these events led to where the pair was presently standing on the edge of the village.

Hiro and the people gathered to see the hero and his companion off. The crowd formed en masse along the road and gazed fondly towards the youngster with the swallow perched comfortably on his shoulder and the redhead carrying a full pack of goods for the journey ahead of them. It almost looked as though they were two travelers who had arrived here together and were setting off in the same manner, but everyone there knew that that was indeed not the case.

One thing was certain however; both of their paths had crossed here, which had them all wondering what was in store for them next.

Naruto was no longer wrapped in the bandages from his scuffle five days ago and was still clothed in the stuff he arrived in. Additionally, he also had Crow's sword strapped to his back, an item he was not going to part with anytime soon. It was _his_ trophy damn it and he was keeping it. Tayuya on the other hand was carrying everything the blonde had bought for her on her person, and was genuinely quite pleased with her new attire and gear. It was clear she hadn't had this much stuff before in her life, so she was obviously more than grateful for it.

The two of them looked back at the crowd with smiles on their faces and warm glows emanating from their forms.

"We will never forget you or all the things you've done for us," Hiro exclaimed with a bow, while the rest of the people around him mimicked his actions. "We wish you all the best and pray for your safe return to _Konohagakure_, Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto waved back to them. "Thanks a bunch. Try not to let some short guy in a shitty suit and glasses take over your country again. I'd really like to pay you guys a visit when you're all back on your feet and have some good attractions waiting for me."

The crowd laughed along with their elder. "Will do," Hiro stated before turning his gaze towards Tayuya, who was also smiling cheerfully beside the shinobi in training. "Take care of yourselves… both of you."

"Thank you," Tayuya nodded back.

With one last parting farewell, the two youngsters then took their leave once the mood permitted them. They turned to face the road ahead and began the long march away from _Riverside Village_, with a spring in their steps and all their thoughts set on the journey that lay in wait. The entire population of the small town saw them off, young and old alike, with Hiro at the front wearing the biggest smile anyone had ever seen on him.

Just before Naruto and Tayuya could reach the very edge of their sights, Hiro then took a moment to turn his gaze towards the ruined dam sitting on the horizon to their left.

Instead of seeing the terrible stone wall that had previously been the main cause of the land's suffering for the past years, the elder saw a glowing white bridge bathed in an ethereal light with archways stretching from one end of the causeway to the other. It was a completely different spectacle from the one that had plagued them before, something that tied the two pieces of land together. It now stood as a road stretching across to a new world as opposed to the soulless barrier it once represented preventing people from moving forward.

The elder contemplated the remains of the dam while stroking his beard. After a moment of careful thought, he then turned to the young man standing beside him.

"Marco, please let the daimyo know that we are reclaiming the estates up on the north ridge, and that he should send workers up there to help repair the dam's foundations as soon as possible," Hiro exclaimed.

The man acting as the elder's assistance looked towards him in surprise. "Hiro-sama?"

Turning to gaze down the road Naruto and Tayuya could be seen off in the distance, the elder inhaled deeply in relief. "I wish to have the dam restored as a proper bridge; a link that will help connect us to the future. We must reinforce the pillars so that it can stand as a new symbol for this country, one that represents the freedom we've managed to reclaim and will help us to rejoin with the rest of the world."

"Oh. I see," Marco replied, looking around to see that other villagers had also heard the old man's words. Noticing their smiles and nods of agreement, the villager then turned his attention back towards their voice of wisdom. "You wish to rechristen it as a monument?"

"Yes. A monument dedicated to the young man who saved us all." With that idea in mind, the elder raised his hand to the back of his head and turned toward his assistant with a sheepish gaze. "I believe a new name for it would be nice too. Instead of _Mugen River Dam_… how about _The Naruto Uzumaki Big Bridge_? That has a nice ring to it."

"Of course, sir."

OOO

Naruto and Tayuya made excellent progress climbing the valley out of the river land. On their way up the road they passed by several groups of people a part of a convoy. The pair only needed to give them a single glance in passing to tell that they were villagers returning to their home town, as all of them could be seen dragging carts and carriages filled with all sort of miscellaneous items from furniture to basic supplies. A smile was brought to the jinchuriki's face knowing that life in the region was steadily going back to the way it had been before Gato's interference.

While they were halfway through climbing the hill to exit the lowlands, Naruto then remembered another important matter he had to attend to in which he quickly addressed Tayuya with when he reached a familiar branch in the dirt road.

"What's wrong, Naruto?" Tayuya asked when she noticed the boy stop walking a few feet back.

The jinchuriki smiled at her before pointing down the abovementioned path. "I just need to make one last stop. Can you give me a moment?" Seeing her nod of acknowledgement, Naruto then followed the perpendicular road down to the familiar farm on the hill overlooking the country and the massive river now back to its former glory. The blonde stepped up onto the patio of the main building and knocked on the door.

While he stood back and waited, he became aware of a rather strange sensation tickling the back of his neck and looked around. When he did, he saw that the cause of the mild coldness was a fine mist of moisture floating through the air from the sprinklers in the fields starting up. He stared across in surprise, but then smirked when he realized what the sight was actually entailing.

"The water system's back on, huh?" Naruto murmured, placing his hands on his hips while looking up to see his friend Swift flying circles above the crops before fluttering down to land on his shoulder again. She chirped happily when she saw him grin, "Pretty awesome, eh?"

"It sure is." Turning around, the boy was met by the door to the front of the building slowly opening and was greeted by a smiling Hanare. The woman now dressed in a casual kimono, leaned against the frame of her door as she beamed down at her visitor. "Good work, by the way. You really showed me something incredible out there, squirt."

"R-Really?" The blonde massaged the back of his head bashfully. "All I did was beat the snot out of a bunch of assholes and destroy a dam blocking a river. I don't see how any of that was incredible…"

The woman giggled at his casual downplay of the events. "Of course it was. You didn't just liberate an entire country. Your actions showed the villagers just what one person was capable of doing, and the courage you displayed gave the people of this country a renewed sense of hope and strength to keep moving forward, and to work hard to hold on to what they have."

"Is that so?"

"I never thought a brat like you would've been able to pull something like that off. It was unreal. At first I figured you were just trying to act tough and cool in front of a pretty young lady, but after seeing that fireworks display I knew it had to be you. I bet the entire region felt the blasts before actually seeing what had happened."

"It was that big?" Naruto murmured while fishing inside his pockets. After a moment of searching he upturned them to show how bare he had been stripped. "Geez… I used up everything I had to knock that stupid wall down and to fight that Crow guy. Now I have to restock all of my equipment again…"

"I'm sure it's not that big of a deal for you. You definitely seem like the resourceful type," Hanare pointed with a smile. "Chin up. It'll be fine."

"Yeah. Alright," Naruto replied before grinning up at the lady. "I just dropped by to see if you were doing okay. I'm heading back home now, so I probably won't be seeing you again for a while."

"Oh. You're leaving so soon?" Hanare queried before reaching behind her door. She then pulled out a box wrapped in cloth and passed it on to the boy, who took it with both hands and looked it over curiously. "Here's something for your trip then. I knew you'd be stopping by sometime after I saw the dam collapse, so I made you something special to say thanks."

Astonished, Naruto weighed the item in his hands gingerly while gazing speechlessly up at the farmer. Since this was the first time he'd ever received a boxed lunch from somebody and having only seen kids back home receive it from their parents, he didn't know how else to respond except out of delight. He laughed happily and bowed repeatedly to the kind farmer.

"Thank you. Thank you so much," Naruto exclaimed over and over.

The woman giggled again and laid a hand on his head, stopping him from hurting himself by accident from his exuberant show of thanks. "That's okay. You did well, squirt."

With that friendly exchange, the woman then looked up when she sensed another presence nearby and saw the red-haired girl that had accompanied Naruto all the way out here. When she noticed Tayuya tentatively looking over from the front gate, the woman smiled and nodded towards her. "Is she with you?"

Naruto looked between Tayuya standing a distance away from them and Hanare momentarily, before grinning back up at the farmer. "Yeah. I met her here a few days ago."

"She's pretty." Able to make her out even from her spot, the sharp-eyed woman decided to add a little more input for the benefit of the runt. "You two look good together. I'd hang on to her if I were you. Good company is really hard to come by these days."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"You'll understand one day when you're older," Hanare chuckled before giving him a gentle wave. "I guess I'll see you when I see you. Okay?"

Gear in hand and Swift sitting astutely on his shoulder, Naruto then set off from the property with one last grin that he sent towards the farmer and his sights fixed squarely on his home village. It was while he was moving up the path away from the property though he then heard Hanare call out to him, and paused for a moment to look over his shoulder to listen in.

"Hey, if you meet a man named Kakashi Hatake in _Konohagakure_, tell him _thank you_ from me!" Hanare exclaimed loud and clear.

A little puzzled at first, Naruto quickly complied with an affirmative nod and moved on, leaving the young woman standing on her front porch and gazing after him. She then glanced back towards the valley below, where she could see the steadily flowing river and the decimated barrier that was once Gato's base of operations.

The sight brought another warm smile to Hanare's face.

OOO

**Sometime later…**

Tayuya was walking alongside Naruto and gazing across at him fondly, finding his expression and appearance under the sun incredibly captivating.

With nothing but silence occupying the space that was normally reserved for talking, it gave the musician plenty of time to study up on the young man that had saved her life, and to see how he operated when he wasn't focused on a mission or moving with intent or purpose. From the way he strode along with his hands in his pockets or resting behind his head and was constantly wearing that smile of his, he looked just like an ordinary kid.

As much as he was a hardnosed brawler and a superb shinobi in battle in spite of not being one on paper yet, he appeared just like any other normal ten-year-old boy. Tayuya just couldn't figure him out, which was why she was investing so much time and energy in examining him while they were still in motion.

Unfortunately for her, her little study session was to be short-lived.

Finally responding to the set of eyes boring into the side of his head like drill bits Naruto glanced across at his curious companion with an expression conveying his own puzzlement. "What's up, Tayuya-chan?"

The red head responded in alarm to suddenly seeing him turn to her and looked away quickly. "N-Nothing. Nothing at all."

Blinking, the jinchuriki placed a hand against his cheek, causing the swallow on his shoulder to hop onto the other one while ruffling her feathers. "Is it something on my face? You were looking at me pretty hard a few seconds ago."

Though Tayuya would normally be more composed for being found out for even worse things, she still couldn't help but blush brightly from the boy's inquisitions and gulped nervously. "I… I was just wondering what you had planned next? You know… after saving the _Land of the Great River_. Are you going to head back to your village or do you plan on traveling some more?"

Making a sound that indicated forethought, Naruto gazed up towards the sky. "Traveling does sound good right now. I never really thought about it much when I was in Konoha, since there was so much to see and do in there. I'm already all the way out here, so I guess it wouldn't hurt to visit some of the other countries surrounding the _Land of Fire_." He then scratched his head as he pondered on the idea a little more. "I've always wondered how different the outside world was compared to the hidden leaf… buu-t after everything that's happened; I think that's an adventure for another time." He grinned back at the girl whom tilted her head at him. "One unexpected trip's enough for now."

Tayuya gave a small smile and nodded gently. "So it's home then?"

"You got it," Naruto exclaimed, earning a cheerful chirp from the bird riding on his shoulder, who then fluttered up to perch on his head. His eyes blinked up toward the swallow. "Swift-chan wants to get back to her boyfriend as soon as she can. She's worried that the other girls across the street might start taking an 'unhealthy' interest in him… whatever that means."

The red head looked at the bird, "Really?"

Naruto shrugged his shoulders. Even though he didn't really get it, he still trusted the words of his friend and his heart, and all compasses from both were pointing him down the road back to Konoha. "I guess it must be tough being in love; you just can't stop thinking about the person you like."

Tayuya blinked at this and switched her focus toward his face again. "Y-Yeah," she mumbled timidly, not taking her eyes off of the blonde for even a second as they continued to walk along.

The girl watched him laugh out in delight when the swallow fluttering around him pecked at his head before landing on his outstretched finger. The sight of his actions had the redhead's stare unconsciously deepen and her cheeks warm, as if she was becoming entranced in some form of genjutsu. Tayuya didn't even realize how rapt her attention in the boy was becoming until minutes later and she looked away from Naruto with a start.

She brought her hands to her chest and clutched the space above.

Why was her heart pounding so much?

Was she coming down with something? Was she falling ill? The girl just couldn't explain it, even after fifteen minutes of more walking and pondering over her condition.

She'd never experienced anything like this before. All of these new feelings and emotions that have been happening to her all started when the blonde haired wonder walking beside her jumped in and rescued her from those gangsters. It was like the act itself tripped some sort of switch inside of her and was filling her with moods and feelings she never felt or thought she could feel before. After being all alone, hungry and cold for the longest she could remember, these warm buzzes filling her stomach and making her feel as if she was walking on air, it was beyond both explanation and comprehension.

Questions plagued her mind and continued to hold her attention as they strode along until they finally arrived at a 'T' junction that split their route in two. Using the map he had bought back at the village Naruto was quick to find his bearings and the road he needed to take in order to get home. He turned right, moving down it while Tayuya paused at the junction and considered both roads for a minute longer, her gaze averting left.

Realizing his friend was no longer walking beside him and was still standing at the junction Naruto stopped and looked back, where he saw Tayuya staring down the other road in deep thought. He looked back with concern, wondering if something was troubling the girl, while another part of him figured she was going to head off in another direction. Was she thinking about it?

It sure looked like it.

With that possibility in mind, the young jinchuriki inwardly started to panic. He didn't want Tayuya to leave, nor did he want to leave her behind either. No way.

"Hey. What's wrong?" Naruto asked, stepping forward when he saw the girl turn to look back at him.

He saw her conflicted expression transform into a confused one as their gazes locked. Upon meeting the boy's eyes the musician then lowered her head and looked away with red in her cheeks, Tayuya's face once again taking on an appearance of doubt, worry and uncertainty.

She didn't say anything for the next minute or so, but the jinchuriki was determined. Thinking it over a little more, Naruto then gave a smile when he figured what the problem troubling the girl could be and nodded her towards him. "Aren't you going to come back to Konoha with me?"

This question immediately got a rise out of Tayuya, her head suddenly snapping up to look across at him in astonishment. "What?"

Naruto grinned, "I asked you if you want to come back to my village with me. It's not far, it's just…" He looked down the road again, made a quick count, and then looked back with an unchanging expression, "Three days away. Sure it looks like a long trip, but it'll be a quick walk, I promise."

Silence fell, in which Tayuya used that time to stare at the boy and try to see if he was messing with her. When Naruto saw her unflinching gaze, in which he could see her mind working at a million miles an hour behind her eyes, his grin widened. "What? Did you think that I was going to continue my journey to becoming an awesome shinobi without you, Tayuya-chan?" He saw her blink. "Nope. I don't want that. I want you to be standing right there next to me when I become Hokage someday."

Tayuya gawked at him. "Y-You seriously want me to come with you?" She saw his grin widen and his head nod, "For real?"

"Believe it! I want you to be there by my side every step of the way. You're my friend, Tayuya-chan. There's no way in hell I want to leave you behind and there's no way I'm gonna. I want to spend as much time as I can with you and learn more about you."

The girl's eyes started to shimmer. "W-Why?"

"Why? Because you're an interesting person who plays awesome music," he said before ramming his fist into his chest. "If you want to become a ninja too, I can help you, dattebayo."

"Really? Y-You…" She then realized her upcoming response and bit her tongue. Frowning, Tayuya attempted to feign a little more indifference to his proposition and looked away with her nose in the air. Sure she tried to pull off the snobbish act now, but this failed to cover up her previous reactions to his leaving and offering of companionship, and so the power she had with her gestures were only half of what they could've been when she retaliated. "And what makes you think I want to become strong like you, shithead?" A cocky smirk appeared on her face. "Honestly. Getting into fights, saving villages, putting your life on the line for complete strangers… why the hell would I want to become a shinobi like that?"

Able to read her like a book, Naruto let out a boisterous laugh and slipped his hands behind his head. The swallow on his noggin chirped happily at the exchange. "It's more fun when you have somebody there to share your adventures with." He extended his hand towards the musician, whose expression visibly brightened. "I want to share this with someone who is precious to me. You're my friend Tayuya-chan… and you're one of the people I want to protect and share great adventures with!"

"_He… He really wants me to go with him?"_ Tayuya thought, feeling excitement quickly well up inside her. _"He… wants me to be with him." _Staring at Naruto silently for what felt like an eternity, the visibly cheerful girl brought her hands to her lips and attempted to hold back an exclamation of glee. Failing in that effort but managing to hold back tears with a quick shake of her head, she then grabbed the straps of her backpack and literally sprinted the distance between her and Naruto.

For the longest time Tayuya remembered being by herself. An orphan who ran away, lived on the streets, surviving anyway she could. People kept their distance from her because of that. But this boy, this… _stranger_ from a far off village who knew very little about the world and nothing about her, approached her without hesitation, saved her, protected her, gave her food when she was hungry, and made her smile. He dragged her out of her damnation, a world she once thought was going to suffocate her and keep her miserable forever, and pulled her back into a place where there was hope.

After all that, Tayuya realized that it wasn't just a world of possibilities that she was brought back into, but she was brought into it by a person whom she realized right then and there that she wanted to stay with forever.

He was the first to acknowledge her and recognize her existence, and there was no chance in hell she was going to let this amazing person go.

She left the junction in her dust, immediately deciding on the path she wanted to take._ "Thank you, Naruto-kun!" _Tayuya thought joyfully as she hopped to a stop and smiled warmly at the blonde, her cheeks showing color and life that previously did not. "If it isn't too much trouble, I'd like to stick with you, shithead."

Naruto chuckled and raised a hand into the air for a high five, "Same here, Tayuya-chan."

Two names they scorned and loved, from two people who couldn't stay a part. With smiles on their faces and fires in their hearts, they sealed their friendship with a clap when their hands met in the air above. The bird on Naruto's head chirped happily when she saw the final mark made and the pair came to stand side by side.

With Naruto leading on and the redhead right beside him, Tayuya couldn't help but simply gaze across at the boy admirably and smile, her heart pounding against her chest.

Though she didn't want to admit it and it wasn't clear whether she saw it, but there was some truth in what the jinchuriki said to her…

You couldn't stop thinking about the one you like…

* * *

**Four days later…**

The Third sat at his desk with his well recognized stoic expression in play and finger tapping a monotonous rhythm against the surface of the desk in front of him, as he glared across at the persons he was currently in conference with. The cause of his current state of part displeasure and part interest stood nervously in front of him alongside the package he'd also conveniently brought along with him following his near two week disappearance from the village, and had just finished wrapping things up in order to come to an understanding with his Hokage.

After having almost every able bodied Jonin and Chunin on the hunt for him the entire time he was 'missing', you could say that Hiruzen Sarutobi was less than jubilant when the boy finally rocked up at the front gate after twelve days of futile searching. All questions regarding his absence were quickly answered upon having the boy dragged up to his office and stood right in the middle of the highest authority's place of work.

Naruto chuckled and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly while gesturing towards the equally nervous red head also standing in the presence of the village leader. "And that's that, oji-san."

"So summing up everything you've told me, after getting knocked out during a training run you somehow wound up inside of a traveling merchant's wagon making a shipment for the _Land of the Great River_, where you just so happen to end up after a three day journey you slept through, and then found yourself in the middle of an annexation of a country being led by the industrial giant Gato. During which time you spent in said country, you then end up rescuing this young girl from a mob of common ruffians, defeated an entire army of mercenaries, destroyed the dam cutting off all water and power supplies from the region's villages, and single-handedly defeated the assassin Crow, a B-Rank criminal known for murdering a feudal lord and his entire family, in a single day, before making your way back home with the abovementioned damsel in tow. Is this correct?" Hiruzen asked.

"That's… pretty much it, oji-san," Naruto chuckled. Now that he heard the whole thing from the old man himself, he couldn't help but find the entire thing a little bit farfetched despite having lived it.

Was his life a work of fiction or something? It was plausible.

The village leader furrowed his brow as he gazed sagely across at the youngsters. "You do realize that not a single person in this entire village is going to believe this story."

Naruto shrugged at the man's statement. "A lot of legends are born from truth."

"Yes and other legends are exaggerations of actual truth. That or are rumors started by individuals looking to bolster the fame of the protagonist in question," Hiruzen recited as if he'd had this particular discussion in the past once before. He breathed out a sigh and leaned back in his chair, his image lit up by the sunny day of the village sitting outside the window behind him. "As you'd probably expect, I'm finding this very hard to take in, Naruto."

"Trust me, the whole thing looks so much better on paper," the jinchuriki exclaimed while scribbling in the air. "You had to be there, oji-san. It was incredible."

Smiling, Tayuya stepped forward in full support of the boy. "Shithead was incredible! You should have seen him yourself. He battled Gato's men like they were nothing and squared off against the strongest of all the killers he had under his employ. It was unbelievable!" As magnanimous as she made her heart filled statements, when the old man glanced towards Tayuya the musician suddenly lost whatever small amount of confidence she had in the elder's presence and shrunk back to her spot directly beside the jinchuriki. All the while she tried to make herself look as small as possible.

The musician was well aware of the individual she was addressing and it was shaking her nerves something fierce.

Looking the girl over, Hiruzen then glanced back at the blonde and smiled. "Well, if everything you said to me is true then you should feel very proud of yourself, Naruto-kun." He saw the pair blink in surprise and continued. "It wouldn't be the first time you managed to astound me with something outrageous and bewildering. Chronicles like this are worthy of a future Kage."

Naruto chuckled. "You should read my autobiography once I get it published."

"I'm looking forward to it," the Third laughed, lacing his fingers together before once again propping his elbows on his desk and leaning forward. He smiled at the two kids starting to look more relaxed and opened up with the next item on the list. "Now… I understand you wish to have this young lady apply for a citizenship?"

"That's right," Naruto exclaimed, stepping away and gesturing to the girl, who stiffened considerably when all eyes fell upon her. "I would also like for Tayuya-chan to come live with me and to start training at the academy to become a shinobi. Is that okay, jiji… or would that be too much trouble?"

The village leader gave a very thoughtful expression to the inquiry. "Considering she has a talent for producing genjutsu like you said means that she probably also has a certain level and understanding of the basic concepts of shinobi conduct. With her abilities, it's certainly possible to have her inducted into the system," the Third stated. Just as smiles were beginning to brim on the two children's faces though, the old man raised his hand to stop them. "However, to have her sign up for the academy is too late now. She'll need to be given an apprenticeship in order for her to catch up on some of the material if she intends to follow-through with the curriculum."

Looking a little crestfallen, Naruto and Tayuya glanced at each other worryingly. However, in spite of being told that they would not be able to attend the same school together, they still found light at the end of the tunnel in the form of the alternate arrangement and looked back towards Hiruzen with merriment.

"That's okay with me," Tayuya stated.

"Same here," Naruto also said boisterously.

"I'm glad to see that you're willing to go along with it. I already have a handful of Jonin looking for prospective apprentices, so it shouldn't be too hard to find someone who's compatible enough to start training you," Hiruzen exclaimed, rising from his seat and bowing to the adolescent musician, "Welcome to _Konohagakure_, young ms."

An overwhelmed Tayuya bowed back respectfully to the elder before embracing Naruto seconds afterwards in triumph at being accepted into his home village. All attention was then slowly returned to the present and to all matters concerning the orientation, which would understandably be the next topic to be dealt with.

It was then when all the metaphorical handshaking was over and done with the third then remembered something else of importance regarding his resident troublemaker, and quickly turned to him in order to address the issue.

"Oh yes, and Naruto. Speaking of the academy…"

OOO

"This sucks!" Naruto yelled out from his corner in the room while holding two buckets out in front of him. He gritted his teeth and looked across at Iruka sitting behind his desk, currently grading tests while the rest of the class was going through their notes. As loud as he was screaming in outrage, the punishment being dealt to him right now was within good reason. "Sensei, why am I being reprimanded for something I couldn't help?"

The scar-faced man looked up in amusement at his venting student. "You were absent from school for nearly two weeks without giving prior notice to your homeroom teacher or the school's administration. I'm sure you of all people understand the severity of this crime, Naruto. Failure to notify the academy of a prolonged absence from class warrants the regular treatment upon your return."

"By getting me to hold these heavy-ass buckets the entire day? Seriously?" Who still practiced this medieval shit? Obviously Iruka. That man looked like he was enjoying dolling out this chore WAY too much for the blonde's liking.

This wasn't his first punishment either. After the usual lecture from the old man following his return, Naruto was then dumped back at the academy to be processed by Iruka in the regular manner; scrubbing, mopping, sweeping, cleaning, stocking, heavy lifting, sorting, and every other detestable task he could possibly conjure up. He had shift work at the school on top of his classes, so the jinchuriki wasn't going to expect any time to sneak any training in until the end of this week. There was no other way to express his disappointment other than through his vocals and the occasional stomping like a child.

He was still ten. He had two more years till final graduation, so only time will tell if he'll really mature enough.

"I told you why I was absent!" God, he wished Tayuya was here right now. He needed irrefutable proof of his innocence.

"And I keep telling you, I don't believe you," Iruka replied with an amused smirk. "Honestly… saving an entire nation from an industrial tyrant, who was none other than the world famous Gato of _Gato International_, in one day? I knew you were an imaginative character Naruto, but that's just going too far…"

"Yeah. Stop daydreaming, slacker!" Kiba shouted from up in his row. "You should know better than to mess with us already."

"We're already wise to a lot of your fooling around," a girl student called out, earning a round of nods from the class.

"Quit acting so high and mighty!"

"Yeah!"

Naruto seethed angrily and shouted at them. "SHUT UP! I SWEAR IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED!"

"Ever read 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf?" Iruka asked with a chuckle before returning to his work. "You've led us along with your stories long enough. Now just stand there and take your punishment like a man."

"This isn't punishment. This is torture!" Naruto snapped back, grinding his teeth. "I'm bored to death over here."

"Then use your time wisely to contemplate on your misdeeds," Iruka replied off-handedly, keeping his eyes on his work and his pen on the paper.

He had to get through to this boy somehow, and what better way than the usual means of physical and mental torment…

OOO

**That night…**

"So this is your home?" Tayuya asked while looking around the corridor of the apartment she had just entered. After the long day she'd had up in the _Administration Building_ getting all of her information sorted through the Hokage and his staff, it was a welcome change to find herself in the residence of the person she would be staying with. "It's nice."

"Thanks. Fair warning though, most of everything you're going to see in this place is brand new," Naruto chirped, kicking off his shoes and leading the way down the hall. He tapped against a wall as they passed it.

Tayuya took note of the area he had touched and saw that there was some exposed woodwork in the wall, some new and some dilapidated. She was able to guess from the new wood that the boy had yet to repaint the area from a recent household accident, which had her giggle.

"Even if you've got nothing else going for you; you sure clean up well."

"I'm a man with multiple colors on his pallet. It's… more like a habit than talent; I suck at everything I don't practice. After destroying an apartment over a hundred times and ruining the village a thousand times more, you'd be surprised how many things you soak in when you're pretty much ordered to clean up after yourself," Naruto informed while gesturing her into a room, which she then took a peek into. "This is the lounge, complete with couches, coffee table, television, window, and my snake plant." He pointed at the potted plant sitting quietly nearest to the sill. "I water it once a day and fertilize it every few months."

"How thoughtful," Tayuya exclaimed with a bright smile before moving on.

"Bathroom and toilet are back there, laundry is over here, kitchen links up to the living room and the corridor, and my bedroom is back here," Naruto informed, opening up said door to the sleeping quarters and showing her in. They stood at the entrance and took stock of its overall appearance. "Sorry if it's a bit of a mess. I haven't been here in two weeks and I had no idea I would be having someone over."

"No, no, I think it's great," the musician replied quickly, taking a few steps into the room and looking around. Of all the chambers inside of the flat Naruto's room appeared to be the most decorated. He had a desk with all his little trinkets on it, a wall of photographs chronicling many of his grand escapades, a few cupboards, closet, drawers, bedside table and of course his bed, sitting right underneath the window giving him a fantastic view of the village. If nothing else, this third-story home certainly let in a lot of natural light. The girl nodded expectantly, "It's just as I thought." She looked across at the blonde and gave him a warm smile. "I think I'm going to like it here."

"I'm glad you approve," Naruto said with a grin, slinging off the katana he had hanging from his shoulder and propping it on the nearby desk. The Third had collected it earlier that day for inspection and to verify the boy's story, which meant the blonde was unable to use it to plead his case to Iruka. That meant that he had been forced to endure the near endless hours of punishments the man had lined up for him, much to his dismay.

Yep, this was definitely going to be the prize of his personal collection, for sure. He was never letting it out of his sight.

"So uhh… where am I going to sleep?" It was obvious that there was only one bed and since it had been officially recognized that Tayuya would be staying in this place for an extended period, the sleeping arrangements were top priority.

This apparently came as little issue to the blonde host, who merely shrugged at his guest's question and nodded towards his comforter.

"On my bed of course," the jinchuriki said with barely any hesitation whatsoever, causing the girl to blush upon processing his response and the straightforwardness of his tone. Naruto blinked at her incredulous stare. "What? You thought I was gonna take it and let you sleep on my cold hard floor?" He turned and set his sights down the corridor. "I'll grab a futon from the laundry. I'm sure I have one stuffed in the overhead that I can use."

"O-Okay…" Tayuya murmured, watching the boy hurry out of sight and begin rummaging through the washroom for the item in question. He returned with it later on and laid it out on his bedroom floor, pillow and all.

After the tour was over and Tayuya was given a rundown on all the essential areas and things she needed to remember, the pair then went about business as usual. While Naruto prepared dinner for the two of them with whatever was still good, the newcomer went to take a shower. They would then later have tea around the dinner table, consisting of cups of ramen that had managed to survive in the blonde's extended absence and orange juice. Though it wasn't much, there would be plenty of time for shopping later.

Once that was all done the pair then headed off to bed.

It had been a while since Naruto had used his futon. He remembered buying it a while ago with the express purpose of using it if he had any friends sleeping over. However, with everything that had happened in his life up until now and with his popularity around the village being the way it was, he never got that chance…

Until now.

Funny thing was though, instead of a guest using his futon _he_ was using it, while the new resident in his apartment called shotgun on the bed. True it was by his own decision, it was just good manners. Tayuya had had it rough for a while now so he had absolutely no problems in sacrificing his memory foam mattress for the floor.

After letting Tayuya take the bed first Naruto then switched the lights off and hit the hay himself. Soon enough, there they were; laying back to back, one elevated above the other with the one on the floor keeping his eyes locked on the door until the sounds of white noise filled the room. Within minutes the jinchuriki felt his brain get pulled into sleep.

However, about an hour into it, the blonde was suddenly woken instinctively by the feeling of his bed covers being moved. A few light shuffling sounds later and Naruto felt a timid figure crawl onto the futon, pulling the sheets back over them carefully before coming to lie behind him. Upon feeling a pair of gentle arms wrap around him and a warm body press up against his back, the jinchuriki's eyes blinked open and he looked behind him.

When he did, he saw Tayuya with her eyes closed and a smile on her face sleeping peacefully behind him.

Seeing her content expression and how her red locks fell gracefully over her face and the pillow brought a warm smile to Naruto's face. He then turned back around and nuzzled himself into his previous state of rest.

For some reason, he had no problems with this. None at all.

"Good night, Tayuya-chan…"

"Good night, Naruto-kun."

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	6. From Great To Genin

**NARUTO**

**Drifting**

_From Great to Genin_

**Two years later…**

It was a lovely, warm summer day out in the woods, conditions that all of the animals and insects living in the forest could agree with as they went about their early morning routines. This sort of went double for one Shino Aburame as he too was out mingling with the common folk. Being a weekend day, the boy had decided to live it up by pursuing his favorite pastime; scouring Konoha's surrounding forests for the most diverse and exotic bug life he could find.

Whether to add them to his arsenal, his collection or to his research it was uncertain, but whatever the case was the young man was so intent in going about his business he was almost completely submerged in the serenity of his environment. Without any need for a log book for documentation, the boy in the high-collar jacket and sunglasses moved from trunk to trunk across the wide expanse of land checking every possible place his friends or targets could be hiding. As expected of someone of his discipline and character, he was incredibly thorough.

Brushing past a couple of branches, the young academy student spotted a golden cicada perched atop of a fallen log resting against a large oak. The song of the insect filled the air with a deafening hum, adding to the sounds of the forest and luring Shino to its position. Glasses flashing, the teen reached down to pick it, only for the insect to suddenly fly off when a cluster of twigs and leaves fell around it.

Blinking, Shino looked up.

In the brush of the tree above, silhouetted against the sunny sky peaking through the canopy, the Aburame spotted a series of small figures leaping and swinging through the upper branches. The teen raised an eyebrow at the commotion of creatures dashing across the heights, which he quickly identified as a family of Gibbons.

It was a common sight; nothing out of the ordinary and nothing to get too excited about. But when an even larger figure darting in amongst the group rushed past Shino's point of view the boy recoiled a little and followed the group of monkeys more intently.

The larger animal was so damn quick he barely had any time to identify it.

"That's no monkey," Shino murmured to himself. "How do I know? Because monkeys don't wear orange…"

It was a fact he and many others knew all too well.

The massive beast leaping through the vines and treetops like he was flying, was wearing an orange jacket with a hood pulled over his head and short, blue sleeves with orange arrow marks on either side pointing forwards. He also wore a pair of orange cargo shorts that stopped at his knees, blue sandals, and a pair of goggles slapped over his eyes for protection. Furthermore, to accompany the massive grin that he wore, his short, blonde spiky hair waved in the wind as he tore past the family of Gibbons he was playing with and ascended the canopy at high speed.

Shino continued to follow the strange figure with his eyes till the young man was gone from sight, moments before the Aburame returned to his task and once again went about foraging for insects.

He didn't need a photo lineup to know who that person was and neither did anybody else who knew that person.

Jumping from branch to branch, making tight corners, impossible climbs and long strides through the canopy, the boy in orange eventually reached the tallest tree in that neck of the woods, which was situated at the top of a very large hill. With fleetness only a wild animal could possess, he clambered up the tree till he arrived at the very tip, allowing him a clear view of his surroundings. The chattering gibbons that had been pursuing him arrived seconds later, crowding around the branches beneath the winner and looking up at him as if he were the big boss himself.

"Ha! Looks like I win again!" Naruto exclaimed, pulling the goggles from his eyes and pushing them up to his forehead. He grinned down at the family of monkeys beneath him. "Sorry fellas. Better luck next time."

The family fussed for a bit, yet maintained their positions and gazed up at him attentively. With his dominance established, the jinchuriki then turned his gaze back toward his village further out, where his eyes fell upon the _Hokage Monument_ situated in the distance and the mountain like cloud towering over the horizon beyond it.

His admiring gaze locked onto the tranquil scenery of his home at peace, capturing his attention long enough to allow two swallows, one with a familiar red kunai mark on their back, to fly circles around him before landing on his right shoulder. Naruto folded his arms for comfort and sat himself on top of the crown as a gentle breeze caressed him, a healthy sigh escaping his lips.

"It's almost here," he spoke in a low yet excited tone of voice. His eyes shimmered with anticipation. "The day that I finally become a Genin is nearly here." Curling his fist, he filled it with all the confidence and heart he could muster before jabbing it towards the four faces of the mountain far in front of his reach. "Look out world; Uzumaki Naruto is coming to get you!"

OOO

**The academy…**

**Mid-day…**

The sound of the school bell signaling the start of lunch rang out throughout the entire building, cutting Iruka's lesson short and breaking everyone out of their emotionless trances. Before the scuffle for the door could commence however, the chief homeroom instructor, determined to finish on a point where he could easily retrace his steps afterwards, clicked his fingers so that he could get everyone's attention and, by extension, kept them from leaving prematurely.

"So remember to study hard tonight for the written exam and that you're ready to take it by tomorrow morning. I expect each and every one of you to at least get a credit for it, so do your best," Iruka stated before dismissing them all with a wave. As kids began filing out one after the other, the man then turned to the middle row where he could see his most troublesome student fiddling with the brace on his wrist, as if waiting for everyone else to excuse themselves before he did. "Naruto! Could you stay back for a bit? I need to talk to you."

Interrupted from his task, the jinchuriki looked up with a start and quickly processed the question. "Oh. Sure thing, sensei."

The rest of the class left easily, save for Shikamaru who needed to be woken up by Choji to get his butt in gear and out of there. Once everyone was out, Naruto and Iruka approached each other on the classroom's ground floor, where the Chunin confronted the blonde haired student with a serious gaze in play and his hands on his hips. The jinchuriki meanwhile maintained his normally collected expression and gazed up at the man curiously, yet remained indifferent towards the overall atmosphere surrounding him.

The blonde scratched his ear when his instructor finally spoke. "So… it's been two years. I believe we have some unfinished business we need to take care of before we move into your finals. You remember the agreement we made back in the woods regarding your _Bunshin no Jutsu_ assessment, don't you?"

With the reason for his prolonged stay now out on the floor, Naruto grinned and nodded his head affirmatively. "The one we made about me learning a different technique to make up for the _Bunshin no Jutsu_ if I'm unable to get it working in time? Yeah. Of course I remember that. I've been on it almost every single day for the past two years, sensei." The blonde stepped back and pressed his fists into his waist, sticking his chest out and looking incredibly pleased. "Believe it."

"Oh? So you've actually managed to find a jutsu that you can use?" Iruka exclaimed, looking the grinning child over once before fixing him with a curious gaze. "What is it exactly? It better not be something useless like that ridiculous _Oiroke no Jutsu_ you pulled on me two weeks ago." Honestly, that was a shock he did _not_ want to relive lest his dignity be dragged further through the mud in front of his entire class again.

"What? The Sexy no Jutsu isn't useless!" Naruto shouted in outrage, quickly forming the hand seal necessary to execute it. "It's my _Sunday Punch _and one of the greatest weapons in my arsenal! Want another demonstration?"

Before he could start gathering chakra his teacher grabbed his hand and pulled it away from the other with haste, disrupting his performance.

"Please don't," Iruka replied quickly, feeling immediate relief wash over him at stopping yet another embarrassing fiasco from taking place. When the blonde's hands dropped to his sides dejectedly, the Chunin continued. Despite how shameful and underhanded the _Oiroke no Jutsu_ was, as a shinobi Iruka couldn't condemn it entirely. After all, the kid worked hard on it and, for the most part, it at least got results. "Okay… it's not _entirely_ useless… I guess. It's effective, but only against a certain… uhh… target demographic." Naruto's expression brightened at hearing that, but Iruka wasn't done yet. "Just try not to use it too often when you're out and about. A jutsu like that can do you more harm than good if used excessively."

"What? Oh… but sensei…" the jinchuriki exclaimed but was cut short when he saw the seriousness appear on his teacher's face. After which Naruto huffed and folded his arms in resignation, "Fine." Though he agreed to it verbally, it didn't mean his heart had to be in it. _"Come on. I spent hours trying to think up a good use for the Henge no Jutsu and Iruka-sensei says it stinks. The Sexy no Jutsu works great."_ No. It didn't just work great; it worked brilliantly. Why didn't he or anybody else see that?

Probably because his sensei and every single person in this village were prudes. That was perhaps the most logical explanation he could come up with, but Naruto made sure to keep this observation solely to himself.

"Anyway… about the _actual_ jutsu you came up with," Iruka continued, getting them back on track. "Did you come up with it yourself from the material you learned at the academy or did you find it in one of the archive scrolls?"

Naruto snapped back into it quickly and smirked up at him. "It's a new one. I came up with it myself."

"Yourself?"

"Or… by accident. It was a really weird day for me," the jinchuriki replied with a distant wave of his hand. "An explosion happened, I was thrown into a wall, I heard a voice, Hokage-jiji broke into my house… it was a real mess. Seriously. I spent hours just trying to fix up my bathroom."

Iruka chuckled in amusement. "I'll bet you did." Man, Naruto had to have the most interesting day-to-day life out of everybody else in _Konohagakure_.

"I gave it an awesome name and everything," Naruto quickly informed with a shrug, feeling a renewed sense of confidence overcome him for that achievement. "And like I said, I've been practicing with it a lot so that I could get better control over it and see what else I could come up with."

"And? How's it working out for you? Is it coming along well?"

"It's getting there… though I still need a bit more time to master it. I've got tons of ideas that I'm experimenting with and you wouldn't believe some of the plans I already have written down. They're awesome. I can really put them to good use if I'm able to push them forward." This was a good thing, since it showed he was actually taking his education and training as a shinobi seriously. He was committing himself to getting something right, something that could help him when out on the field and needed some extra leverage when push came to shove. Iruka's expression warmed up at this information and he returned his student's words with an approving nod.

"Alright then," the Chunin exclaimed before gesturing towards the door. "Let's take this out onto the fields. You can show me what this original technique of yours is and I'll assess you on it. I need to determine for myself whether it is a genuine, working jutsu that is both practical and functional. Hope you're ready."

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be, Iruka-sensei," Naruto replied with a smile, jabbing himself in the chest. "I'll show you what the future Hokage of this village can do, dattebayo!" He then left the classroom in a run. His teacher, smiling in amusement, followed him shortly afterwards.

OOO

Naruto and Iruka arrived at the training fields on the edge of the academy grounds shortly there afterwards, and quickly began searching for an area where they could test the former's new jutsu out to its fullest. Since he didn't want to trash the place during an official assessment, the jinchuriki led his teacher towards the shuriken range, where posts had been lined up specifically for the practice of shurikenjutsu. The area was perfect for any long reaching techniques to be used to their best effect without stirring up a fuss in the surrounding neighborhood and it helped that they were currently empty.

It was lunch period after all and the only group of students present in the academy was Iruka's class. With exams coming up tomorrow, the other year levels had been given the day off so as to not interfere with the proceedings or unintentionally disrupt the graduation ceremonies. Their time would come later.

Iruka situated himself on the sidelines in the ideal observation position, watching for the next few minutes as his student fussed over the setup. For some strange reason the blonde began running all over the place and grabbing miscellaneous objects of all shapes and sizes, from training dummies to barrels, to even a massive boulder lying beside the fence. That sucker must have weighed a ton from the way Naruto lugged it over in his arms, but he eventually accomplished his task of foraging and stood behind all the items collected with a determined smile on his face.

While Naruto caught his breath, the Chunin raised an eyebrow and tapped his clipboard with the tip of his pen patiently. "So? Are you sure this is a genuine article?"

"Sure I'm sure!" Naruto replied, slapping his hands together and rubbing them enthusiastically. "I'm a man of my word, Iruka-sensei. When I say I'm going to get something done, I get it done, no matter how impossible it is."

The man smiled impishly. "And yet you're still unable to perform the _Bunshin no Jutsu_ properly. Care to explain that little discrepancy?"

"Hey!" the blonde shouted while jabbing a finger in the shinobi's direction, "Me screwing up that technique over and over again is totally not my fault. I told you a thousand times before that that jutsu is bullshit!" The boy had made it quite clear to everyone in his class that his efforts in trying to create at least one, live clone for the past two years had been more than just a frustrating venture. This was evident from his frequent and often profound swearing and cursing over the academy's most basic requirements.

Iruka laughed while giving the boy the 'ease-up' gesture with both hands, "Okay, okay, sorry. That was a low blow." The man waited for Naruto to stop seething enough for him to clear his throat and go over the problem again, only with a little rewording. "That technique takes only a specific amount of chakra to execute correctly. My guess is because you have such an enormous amount of chakra that trying to perform the _Bunshin no Jutsu_ is like trying to squeeze a single drop of water out of an entire ocean. It's just physically impossible for you to produce a working clone in that manner." This bit of information made the jinchuriki feel even more depressed, which Iruka hurriedly backtracked on so that his student didn't skulk off again. "But don't lose hope! I'm sure you'll be able to find some way to make use of your situation!"

Naruto sighed. "It's cool, Iruka-sensei… I'm already used to disappointment in that area…"

Seeing rainclouds begin to form over the distraught child's head, Iruka took action. Tugging on the collar of his vest, the Chunin decided to move forward with the supplementary examination of his student's abilities so that he could let the boy off to enjoy his lunch break in peace.

"Alright, how about this Naruto; after you get through this test and school's out for the day, I'll treat you to… _three_ bowls of miso ramen for dinner. How does that sound?" Iruka asked hopefully.

Like a Jack-in-the-box, Naruto's head shot back up with stars in his eyes, the glow of which dispersed the proverbial storm clouds hovering over him. "Really? Three?"

"Yes. Really."

"YATTA!" Naruto shouted, jumping in the air and punching the sky. Upon landing, he then stood directly behind the training dummy he'd lined up alongside the other materials, and retook his stance. "Alright sensei, step back and prepare to be amazed. You won't want to miss a single second of this."

"I'm on the edge of my seat, Naruto," Iruka chuckled, though his expression and position didn't exactly show this. Let's just say he was as eager as he possibly could be without losing his composure. He was upright and proper, and that was good enough for him. Clicking his pen, the Chunin prepared for assessment. "Okay. You can start whenever you're ready."

Naruto didn't need the whistle to be blown twice.

With his target set and his teacher standing a safe distance away, the jinchuriki began to skip rapidly on the spot. Upon loosening up and ensuring he had a strong enough base to launch himself from, Naruto went for it. He exploded from his spot in a blur, right hand cocked back before sending it forward in a palm strike straight into his target's chest.

"_**Jet Hand!"**_

Iruka wasn't prepared for what he saw next…

The second Naruto made contact, a blast of wind erupted from the point of impact that sent the training dummy spiraling through the air like a bullet down the range and into the end post. It took only a second for it to reach the trunk and the moment it hit, the mannequin exploded in a shower of splinters. In the end, all that was left of it was an empty flower bag with a ruined target symbol slapped across its front.

Other than that, there was really nothing else that could distinguish it as a training dummy any longer. All of the hay had scattered on the wind and its frame had disintegrated.

Still in an unloading position, the moment the dust settled Naruto slid out of his stance and looked back at his teacher with a grin. "How was that, sensei?"

On his side, Iruka was, in a word, flabbergasted. With a deer-caught-in-the-headlights expression and his mouth slightly ajar, the man was lucky enough to be able to catch his pen when it suddenly dropped from his hand before scribbling notes furiously onto his pad. After which he then glanced back up at his student.

Not even his actions or attempts to look professional could hide his shock.

"What kind of jutsu was that?"

"It's a _Wind Release_ technique that I call _Jet Hand_," Naruto replied, holding up his right and flexing his fingers. "By placing my hand against any surface I come into contact with I'm able to create an ejection point for high volumes of air. The air blasts out of the affected area at high speed like a vacuum with enough power to send objects flying like they have rockets attached to them. At first I needed to use hand seals to use the technique until six months ago… now I don't."

"Th-That's… really impressive Naruto," Iruka murmured, jotting down notes as the boy explained to him the mechanics of the jutsu. "How in the world did you come up with it? I've never seen or even heard of a technique like this before, and I'm supposed to be good at this stuff."

Most jutsu associated with that affinity were expelled from the mouth, used in conjunction with weapons or, in even more uncommon cases, generated from the body. On top of being a rare element, what Naruto did was take the general concept of air circulation, brute force and precise cutting technicalities of the affinity and created a technique that could function as a highly effective offensive weapon he could use at his convenience. It was sharp, short and simple, something he would expect the boy to use but not something he'd ever seen before.

Since when could someone attach chakra to an object with the touch of their hand so easily and generate that much power with it?

A jutsu of that level must take an exponential amount of energy to use from the amount of force that was behind it. This was definitely something Naruto could work with, no doubt.

"You can use it freely?" Iruka asked.

"Yeah! And not only that, I can use it repeatedly," Naruto said. He illustrated this point by walking passed the barrel, the log and the trash can he had also lined up and slapped his hand against them one after the other. With every touch, the object he brushed was sent spiraling down the field to the other end and, just like the training dummy before them, was either utterly destroyed or damaged beyond recognition. Naruto threw his hands out after showcasing his masterpiece to his teacher. "Cool huh? I'm not even tired."

"_Well… that's no surprise. Your chakra is monstrous, kid,"_ Iruka mused to himself before writing more down, making sure to keep his facts brief so as to limit the technique's exposure. Something like this… details on it needed to be kept to a minimum for the benefit of the user but at the same time needed to inform any third party candidates should issues arise from this jutsu's usage. Because it was something Iruka hadn't seen before, he needed to be careful with what he wrote down. "So… what do you think you will be able to accomplish with this? What kind of damage can this thing actually do?" Yes, the question he was absolutely dreading the answer towards, especially concerning the orange wearing menace of the streets.

Naruto scratched his chin while looking at his hand. "It does a ton of physical damage. I can rip trees out of the ground and stuff that weighs heaps with just one ejection point alone. Walls can also be ripped to pieces if they're standalone and I was even able to get an entire house to move several feet from its spot." This had the Chunin shake his head in disbelief, being unable to comprehend such a scenario. It was then the blonde looked up at Iruka and dropped him the coup de grace of bombs. "I also know it can do some serious damage to people… and not just send them flying across a valley."

"How do you know that?" Yet another answer Iruka started sweating bullets over.

"The last person I fought with was a guy named Crow. I sent him packing with a full power _Jet Hand_ and blasted his body into a concrete pillar. The barrier caved in on itself and I'm pretty sure if the guy wasn't so damn hardwearing he would have died right there."

"Crow?" Iruka murmured, trying to figure out where he'd heard that name before. It must have been on one of the low-profile sections of the Bingo Book since the name clearly wasn't anywhere near S-Rank; probably low B or mid C-Rank. It was somewhere in there, he was sure of it; Iruka just wasn't familiar enough with the name or the face that went along with it. But after giving it some thought the man then looked down to see Naruto march over to the boulder, which he then stood beside and waited patiently for a response. "Are you talking about the time when you were absent from class for two weeks?"

"Yes I am," Naruto smiled before turning to face the huge rock. He dropped into a stance and pulled his hands back. "But no matter how many times I tell you the story, you guys still don't believe me." He then slapped his hand across the face of the rock, launching it from its position and sending it at breakneck speed across the range.

Iruka and Naruto watched as it not only crashed into the target post, it ripped right through it, through the sand bags behind it, shattered the first concrete divider, took a chunk out of the top of the second and went straight through the wire fence. It bounced across the road a few times before carting to a complete stop against a reserve wall, astounding the teacher at the amount of brute force displayed by the versatile technique.

"Well… I sure as hell believe you now," Iruka breathed out, before looking back at his student to see Naruto grinning up at him. The positive response he saw from the kid then coaxed a smile of his own and, after jotting down the final details, pocketed the pen and arm-pressed his clipboard to his side. "Evaluation complete. You'll have your results handed back to you by tomorrow afternoon once all your exams are over and done with. I'll see you back in class, Naruto."

"What about the _Bunshin no Jutsu_ test, Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked curiously, seeing the man begin to saddle off but stop upon hearing his question. "Do I still have to take it?"

The Chunin shook his head and passed the boy a warm smile. "You don't have to if you don't want to. I'll allow you to sit it out, just as we agreed."

Naruto grinned and nodded boisterously.

With pleasantries and good wishes traded, the pair then went their separate ways to spend the rest of their lunch hours doing whatever they needed to do. While Iruka needed to get his paperwork done as well as arrange a crew to be brought in to fix up the shuriken range, Naruto had his own business to attend to. It was exam day tomorrow, so he had to be as physically and mentally prepared for it as he could make himself in time to sit through the onslaught of tests.

It was going to be one hell of a ride.

However, unknown to both the teacher and the student, the two of them failed to notice the shadow of a hawk watching over them from atop the nearby roof. With his white hair waving in the wind, Mizuki glared down at the school grounds beneath him with a big frown on his face as he saw Naruto dash off to rejoin his classmates. After seeing him disappear round the corner, the Chunin rubbed his chin worryingly before standing up to full height.

"_Damn you Iruka; warming up to that demon brat. Guess I'm going to have to get my own hands dirty in this one if I'm going to come out of this clean…"_

He needed to rethink his strategy; one that would be able to kill two birds with one stone while excluding himself from the equation long enough to make a breakaway from this travesty of a shinobi village. The question though was… how?

OOO

**That afternoon…**

Naruto slipped away with a quick weight-shifting dodge to avoid the palm strike thrown by his opponent Tayuya, who managed to swivel around to face him again when he dashed around her at high speed in full reverse. Though the space in the clearing of the woods they were using for their sparring session didn't provide much room for excessive movement, the jinchuriki was using it surprisingly well much to the chagrin of his partner.

"God damn it! Now I know how everyone else feels when they rush in to try and hit you!" Tayuya shouted, dripping sweat as she tried to run after the boy, only for him to shuffle on the spot before suddenly zipping off to her left and out of reach. "Hold still!"

"If you want to get into a hitting match with me I'll be more than happy to give you one, Tayuya-chan. But I don't think you'll like it as much as the thing we've got going now," Naruto exclaimed cheekily, allowing the girl to run in and uncork a flurry of her best attacks on him. He ducked and weaved around every single one of her punches and kicks, giving her a good workout before swaying back when she came in with a spinning back-kick. "Whoa! You're actually doing really well today."

"Like hell I am! I haven't even hit you once, while you could have hit me over a dozen times by now!"

"Three dozen, actually," Naruto replied with a playful grin.

"Whatever you smartass bastard! Get back here!" Tayuya shouted again, throwing a few jabs, only for her opponent to weave through them. "DAMN IT!"

Ever since Tayuya came to Konoha and made her bed next to Naruto's, the pair of them rarely spent any of their off time apart. Though few people outside of them and the Hokage knew about the newcomer, of all the people their age they could be spending their days with, the two shinobi in training spent nearly all of their available hours together. When not hanging out at the apartment and just crashing, they were going out for long walks, running around the village, shopping, eating, going to fairs and all manner of casual fun.

Almost a week after being instated into the shinobi training program, Tayuya had managed to bag an apprenticeship under a woman named Mitarashi Anko, whose personality strangely mirrored Naruto's in a really creepy kind of way. Though the training got off to a rocky start, in which both kids were scared the shit out of by the crazy kunoichi in her first few days interacting with them, things started rolling much smoother after the introductory sessions. Thanks to the woman's 'delicate' touch and her student's willingness to learn, Tayuya's progress to becoming a fully-fledged ninja alongside her friend was coming along nicely.

She was making good ground.

To help her along and to trim out any rough edges in their development, the pair often trained with each other. While training by oneself was good at times, it was even better when you had a second there to support you. Aside from basic theory, meditation and chakra control exercises, the duo also split their time between physical training and practicing their ninjutsu skills. They also sparred a lot, with today's session being one of the many occasions where both Naruto and Tayuya used their one-on-one conference with each other to its utmost.

Though it seemed like a one-sided bout from a distance, it was doing wonders for their senses and reflexes.

After a few more exchanges, Naruto raised a hand and stopped Tayuya hard in her tracks, ending their fight in a cloud of dust settling over the still grass.

Thanks to their full-on session, the red head was sweating from head to toe and looking incredibly rundown, as if she'd just finished a marathon across the entire country. Her Energizer powered opponent on the other was not only looking like he'd had the best day of his life, but was also wearing a wide smile and emitting an aura that she swore was lighting up their entire training area.

"That's enough for today. You did well."

"Th-Thanks…" Tayuya breathed exhaustedly.

"Man. You've gotten heaps strong since the last time we sparred. Anko-sensei must really be putting you through your paces."

The musician gasped and straightened up, running her hand through her long, untamed hair that she allowed to hang freely on the breeze. "How the hell are you able to move like that? I know I've seen you fight before and I know how you move from a distance, but…"

"It's different when you're up close and facing off against the real thing, huh?"

"Pretty much," Tayuya replied before scowling at him suspiciously. "It's hard to believe you learned most of your taijutsu skills from getting into fights with delinquents on the streets and hanging around with animals for most of your life. From the way you move and hit, you make it seem like you were trained by a master or something."

His speed was unreal, and his eyesight, sense of timing, flexibility and reflexes were just as unnatural. Not only that, but it seemed like he was getting better with every session.

"It's just a lot of training and hard work," Naruto replied casually while shrugging. "You'd be surprised at how much you can learn just from watching and mimicking what you see. I know how to fight and react from experience."

Tayuya giggled. "I doubt even your classmates would be able keep up with you when you get really serious."

"Don't be surprised. It's not like I'm going to use the same moves over and over again, right? That would be stupid," Naruto laughed, slipping both hands behind his head and grinning. "My opponents would be able to see where I go before I even get there and counter me if I tried to be too direct. Why do you think I choose to dodge most of the time? It saves energy and allows me to observe what my opponents are thinking first so I know how and where to attack them from when I need to, and build up my rhythm."

Tayuya blinked at him. "So… what you're saying is that it's all reflex? Your fighting style is _no_ fighting style at all?"

"No _set_ fighting style," Naruto corrected, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out his goggles, slapping them back around his head. "Basically I just visualize what other people have done and what my opponent could do, and improvise. In other words, I just use moves that I know will work in a fight. It's sort of like… freestyle."

"Freestyle?" Tayuya repeated, testing the word out a little before smiling. "So your taijutsu style is _Freestyle_ taijutsu? That's pretty cool."

"Yup," Naruto nodded affirmatively, "Always different, always changing. That's how I fight."

The girl giggled and set herself in another stance, throwing out a random combination of shadow attacks. "Anko-sensei taught me _her_ fighting style and how it worked. She's really good at hand-to-hand combat and she's not afraid to trade blows with her opponents when things get tough. I've seen her strength too. It's terrifying how much raw power she can actually muster."

"She's a Tokubetsu Jonin and a strong kunoichi. I'm just surprised they haven't made her a full Jonin yet," the jinchuriki commented, remembering her skills from previous encounters with the specialist. Not only was she quick and incredibly capable, she also knew how to throw dango sticks with terrifying accuracy.

Tayuya then looked back at him with a bit of disappointment in her gaze. "I used so many different combinations against you, even moves I just made up on the spot, but you dodged them like you knew that they were coming."

"The positions of your hands and feet give you away," Naruto said before shrugging. "I don't know. I just avoided them the way I did because I knew that was where your next attack was coming from."

What, did he possess some mild form of foresight or something? This boy was incredible. No matter what anybody tried he wasn't shaken or put off in the least. He just took every attack in stride and economically used his time in thinking up a method of countering.

Naruto wasn't just light on his feet and physically tough, he was also deceptively clever, sharp and intelligent, definitely an improvement from what he was two years ago. All of that book grinding had really helped him along in the areas where he was weakest. It brought a smile to Tayuya's face knowing that the person she wanted to walk alongside, the person that she could count on the most was so strong.

"It's like you see everything in slow motion," Tayuya exclaimed before placing her hands on her hips and leaning towards him knowingly. She raised a finger in warning, "But don't get too cocky. Some day I'm going to catch up to you, shithead, and when that happens we'll see who's going to take the top spot in this village."

Naruto laughed before gesturing towards the exit of the field. Already decided that they'd done enough, the two of them started walking out of the training area side-by-side, all the while looking across at the other with the utmost respect. "I'm always up for some healthy competition. Having _you_ gunning for me would be a very interesting learning experience. Let's make the race to the crown fun and train even harder from now on, okay Tayuya-chan?"

"No problem."

They exited the forest and into the suburbs, where they were immediately met with the afternoon rush to get home. While walking through the streets, passing by the silhouettes of everyday villagers in the background, Tayuya couldn't help but quietly soak in more of her surroundings of what had since two years ago become her home. Seeing both the familiar and unfamiliar, she then looked back across at the jinchuriki and gazed at him fondly.

"Thank you so much, Naruto-kun."

"Hmm? What for?"

She stepped closer to him and wrapped her arms around his right, causing him to look down at her in surprise. "For letting me come with you when I had nowhere else to go. You knew nothing about me or who I was, yet you invited me into your home without hesitation and gave me a reason to keep on living… something good and wonderful. I can't imagine what my life would have been like if you hadn't come along when you did."

Tayuya closed her eyes and rubbed her cheek against his arm soothingly. "Thank you."

Puzzled at first, Naruto then quickly caught on to what she was saying and nodded with an equally warm gaze crossing his expression. "You're welcome, Tayuya-chan."

The girl smiled at him as they continued walking hand-in-hand. From the villagers' point of view, the pair looked like the perfect couple, like they were made to be with each other the way they were latched on to the other. The bright boy with blonde hair and wearing orange walking beside the girl dressed in a khaki battle top and black figure-hugging spandex pants, almost fitted together like yin and yang. No matter how you looked at it, they obviously cared about each other and weren't afraid to show it.

When they arrived at a junction, Tayuya pulled away and waved to the blonde before he could march off in the opposite direction. "I'll see you when you get back home, okay?"

"What about dinner?" Naruto asked. "You don't want to come with me?"

Tayuya grinned and pointed down the road. "There's a new teriyaki chicken and fried rice dish on the menu down at the bar that I want to try out, so I'm all good here. You can have your ramen with Iruka-sensei."

Smile forming, the boy nodded back. "Understood. Have fun," Naruto called, watching the girl run off before setting his own course down the other lane. As he moved on, the jinchuriki was unable to suppress the grin tugging at his lips. With his heart soaring the way it was right now, the task of removing this smile was made even more impossible. "_We'll both be Genin tomorrow. Both of us. Man, I can't wait!"_

It was going to be a restless night, no question.

XXX

**Later that evening…**

**Konoha's jail…**

While it is true criminals of the shinobi world hanging around the area of the _Land of Fire_ were normally sent to the _Konoha Strict Correctional Facility_ or the international prison of _Hozukijo_ located in _Kusagakure_, it should be noted that there are a few exceptions to the rule. The village of _Konohagakure _had facilities of its own close at hand for dealing with the abovementioned offenders, whom would be confined to quarters of varying levels depending on the severity of their crimes. While murderers and law breakers of the same class were given the usual treatment, rogue ninja and shinobi who have broken the laws were given different privileges.

To put it simply, those shinobi from other villages or missing nin that were captured inside of _Konohagakure's_ borders were confined to one of the lower levels of the Leaf's temporary holding facility for interrogation. The location of this facility is known only to _Konohagakure_ shinobi of Chunin level and above, so if anybody wanted to make any appointments or visits to criminals before any processing dates, they had to see shinobi of a high enough rank to approve a visit. Chunin and Jonin on the other hand could come and go as they pleased on the clock, including ANBU, though their visits were strictly off record for obvious reasons.

A lot of criminals came and went through here, save for one or two special cases. One of these cases in particular just happened to be the focus of a rare visitor to the establishment; Mizuki of the ninja academy. At his behest, the man entered the facility to one of the lower levels reserved for rogue ninja. With only two cells registered as occupied, he looked for the one at the very end of the hallway.

There, sitting or lying wherever they were on the other side of the bars, were three very familiar kunoichi. Dressed in blue prison uniforms with seals slapped over the walls and gates, the girls were doing whatever they could to occupy themselves. While two were playing cards in the middle of the room, one of them was lying across her bed reading a book. From their current states, they looked like they hadn't bathed in months, and appeared quite exhausted from whatever inquiries, physical and verbal, they had to go through.

For the most part though, they looked fine.

"What the hell do you want?" the silver haired leader of the three asked from her bunk, not even bothering to tear her eyes away from her novel for even a second. "Is it lights out already?"

Her teammates glanced over to see Mizuki looking in with a smug smile on his face. Wearing his bandana with his village's emblem inscribed clearly on the forehead protector, he looked even more sinister adorned in that piece then he normally would without it and gave the trio of kunoichi a quick fly over.

"You all look like shit," the man pointed out in clear amusement. "The services in this hotel must be pretty shocking."

"Ha-ha," the woman mumbled back dryly. "Don't you have anything better to do like filing paperwork or something? Piss off."

"Yeah," the kunoichi with the long brown hair snapped as well.

"Beat it, Konoha scum. We don't need your pity," her shorter haired companion followed up.

"My, my," Mizuki said with an even wider grin. "Why so negative?"

"You know damn well why," the team leader said again without even turning to face the snake in their midst. "If you expect us to smile and be cheerful after all the shit we had to go through, you can cram whatever words you have to say to us up your ass and leave now."

"Well… that's an awfully blunt thing to say to the guy who's going to bust you three out of here," Mizuki exclaimed. His words immediately earned him an eyeballing from the kunoichi leader on the bed and dead silence from her companions. Despite their hush, the two kunoichi playing cards dropped whatever they were holding and rose to their feet, an action that coaxed a smirk from the white haired man standing right outside their front door. "Oh… what's this? You want to listen to me now?"

The boss of the group frowned before looking back at her novel, "Dangling bait in front of us to try and get us to spill more secrets to you dirt bags? Forget it. I know a bluff call when I see one."

"This isn't some con to get you three to talk some more. I'm pretty sure you already gave them everything they wanted to hear. To be frank, I could care less about your business and personal interests. I've got my eyes set on a much bigger prize," Mizuki replied, stepping closer to the cell and getting the kunoichi behind it to glare at him even harder. "In fact, that's exactly why I'm here. I have a proposition for you girls that I'm sure you'll be most interested to hear."

The two compatriots looked over at their boss, whom they could see was still reading her novel in a disinterested manner. After a few seconds of silence though, she shut the article she was skimming but kept it level above her face. "Keep talking…"

Mizuki smirked. "There's an item sealed away in the Third Hokage's vault room that is of substantial value to me, something that possesses a great amount of secrets of the kinjutsu nature. I wish to acquire this item for myself and leave this village. But before I can get my hands on it, I'll first need to create a big enough _distraction_ to draw the eyes of the Third away from his homestead, long enough to break in and out without anybody noticing."

The head kunoichi looked over at the Chunin carefully. "What's in it for us?"

"Your freedom and a portion of the secrets from the scroll in question once I've acquired it," Mizuki replied straight away. "In return I want you to set off explosives at the main entrance to make it look like the village is under attack and to draw all attention of the home forces to that area. You were able to bypass Konoha's defenses the first time you entered two years ago, correct? I'm sure with those same skills and with the Intel I can provide for you; you'll be able to do it again."

Sitting up in her bunk the silver haired kunoichi smirked across at the man. "From the look on your face you seem to have something else you wish to accomplish from this joint enterprise." She tilted her head at him curiously. "What else is involved with this grand scheme of yours?"

Mizuki chuckled. "As an added bonus, feel free to kill the little rat that put you three here in the first place." He thumbed at his chest. "As it turns out; I want him dead too, but for a completely different reason. I just think that the world would be much better off without him in it."

The two kunoichi standing stiffened at the mention of the blonde haired kid that had toyed with them all those years ago. With that proposition on the floor, the pair turned back to their leader for instruction, only to stop when they saw her smirking just as eagerly as the man offering them their freedom. Obviously, the entire squad had been thinking about revenge on the kid for quite some time, particularly after all the shit he'd put them through. Even though he was able to run circles around them in their first encounter, they had seen how he operated and had plenty of time to think about making up for lost opportunities, so to speak.

What this man was planning basically gave them a chance to accomplish two things at once; escape from this retched place and allow them to take their frustrations out on the kid who put them here two years ago. How could they possibly say no to that?

Mizuki held up his other hand, revealing a set of keys he'd managed to swipe from one of the guards on the way down to their cell. "So… what do you say? You help me and I help you find the rat. Deal?"

The leader stood up, with her teammates turning back to face the turncoat.

The girl with starlight in her hair grinned. "Let us out of here."

Mizuki gave a small laugh and twirled the keys on his finger, stepping forward to remove the seals on the bars. Just as he was grabbing the first strip, he turned to the prisoners. "I'm sorry; I don't think I ever caught the names of you lovely young ladies?"

The silver haired kunoichi smirked. "Noriko."

The brunette with long hair also smiled. "Kureha."

The one with the shorter cut folded her arms. "Shuko."

"Well then," Mizuki exclaimed, yanking the first of the tags from the gate. "Let's get started…"

XXX

**Night…**

**Inside Ichiraku's…**

"So… what other brilliant ideas were you able to come up with for your new jutsu, Naruto?" Iruka asked after slurping up a stray noodle that had been hanging from his lips. He pointed his chopsticks at the kid, who was still busy gobbling up his second serving. "You've obviously had it for quite a while now by how well you were able to execute it. With that crafty personality and unpredictable nature I'm sure you were able to imagine up some interesting concepts."

"You know that I can't tell you that, Iruka-sensei," Naruto stated while giving his teacher a tight glare. He kept on talking despite having his mouth full. "We're ninja, remember? We're supposed to keep stuff like this a secret. Besides, didn't we agree that the test was for one jutsu and one jutsu only?"

Iruka chuckled, scratching the side of his head. "Of course but… I'm just so curious about it now. After seeing you blast that boulder and training dummy across the field I just couldn't stop thinking about it. It's not every day a person discovers an entirely new jutsu no one has even heard of until it's actually used. Anything that appears new nowadays has either been developed from existing techniques or is derived from a kekkei genkai."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that. "What the heck's a kekkei genkai again?" In response to his question, since his forehead was covered by his goggles, the boy instead received a flick to the nose. "Ow! Hey!"

"Think, Naruto. I touched on it in my lectures for the past two years and at the beginning of this semester," the Chunin stated with a frown. "Kekkei Genkai literally means 'a technique limited to inheritance by blood', which means abilities handed down genetically through specific clans."

"Oh yeah… that thing," Naruto exclaimed while rubbing his nose. "The weird jutsu like what the Hyuuga have with those eyes of theirs and what Sasuke is supposed to have… the Sharin-whatever."

"Sharingan, yes. But kekkei genkai aren't just limited to doejutsu. There are many others out there, even ones that haven't been discovered yet, that use all kinds of elements in one and possess interesting traits. Like abilities to manipulate lava, to create poison from the body, or an ability to absorb chakra. Stuff like that exists out there in the world and oftentimes are hard to come across," Iruka exclaimed before smiling at his student, propping his head up on his arm. "You don't have a kekkei genkai or anything like that, but you were able to come up with something as equally impressive. I think you should see your overwhelming level of stamina, imagination and chakra reserves as a blessing."

"Of course I do. Why do you think I'm able to keep smiling all the time? Because I'm able to beat everyone at anything involving long distance," Naruto grinned while poking the side of his head. "But these new ideas of mine… they're staying right up here in the safest place in the world."

Iruka smirked, "Alright then… if you say so." Before he could go back to his noodles though, he felt a tug on his sleeve and looked back to see Naruto leaning towards him. The boy gestured for the man to drop down a level, to which he then loaned him his ear. "What's up?"

Looking left and right, making sure Teuchi and Ayame were both occupied, Naruto then focused back on his teacher's ear with a mischievous grin. "If you really, really want to know what else I have planned… I'm learning how to fix up the timing," he whispered.

"Timing?"

"Yeah. Like a countdown for the technique to activate," Naruto said while looking exceptionally devious. "I want to catch my enemies off guard with a delayed attack. Doesn't that sound cool?"

Iruka considered the idea for a moment before letting out a laugh of his own, leaning back and readjusting the headband on his head. Even he had to admit that sounded like a swell plan, especially with the technique he'd seen. "It sounds awesome, Naruto. I can't wait to see where you go with it." With his student beaming up at him the man couldn't help but shake his head at the humor of the moment._ "The little rascal; he just couldn't resist."_

"I've got tons more ideas in the workshop," the jinchuriki added before downing the rest of his bowl in one go. He then beckoned for Ayame for a third, which the young waitress gladly obliged. "But I wonder what else I can do with _Jet Hand_ besides using it to blow people away and to send stuff shooting off into the distance. Maybe I can get it to screw around with the air to mess with people's movements or something."

He made a note to take a peek at his science book for something with a little more 'bang' in it later. That sounded like a feasible way to help feed his creative genius.

Iruka chuckled before ruffling the kid's hair. "I'm sure you'll think of something else."

Grinning brightly, Naruto dove right on in to his last bowl for the evening. He wanted to get home as soon as he could so that he could hang out with Tayuya and work on some new material. There was a time for everything and he didn't intend on wasting a single second.

XXX

After an incredibly satisfying dinner with Iruka, Naruto then bade his teacher goodnight and headed on home as quick as he could. With his final exams coming up tomorrow he needed all the time he could muster to cram everything he needed to know before the assessment bells were rung. All he needed to do was make sure he had everything covered and while walking down the street back up to his apartment, compiled a list of all the tests he needed to pull through in order to get his headband.

"_So let's see… I have the Kawarimi test, the Henge test, and the written exam,"_ Naruto listed one after the other, a smile being brought to his face once more as he walked along. _"And I don't need to do the Bunshin no Jutsu test anymore since I did that supplementary exam with Iruka-sensei today. Though I'm still bummed out that I can't even create one clone yet, I'm sort of alright with that."_ The exams were a long and arduous enough process for any kid to deal with already, so it was great that he didn't have a fourth point weighing him down. In the past few years Naruto had been at the academy he'd had end of year tests involving jutsu each and every time and for the last two he'd failed to produce a single working clone.

What? Was his chakra really that big that he couldn't pop out one little speck for the simplest supplementary move? Geez.

"_I guess I can catch up on it another time,"_ Naruto thought while stretching his arms. _"I've got other tests to worry about. The Henge and Kawarimi I can put at the bottom of the list. All I need to concentrate on now is the written exam. Damn theory." _Rubbing the back of his head, the blonde stopped in the middle of the road and looked across to his left to see the local convenience store in the area lit brightly for the awe of all passers in the area. The sight of the blaring neon lights then set off a different kind of light in his head, which had him snap his fingers in remembrance._ "Oh, that's right. I need to restock my cupboards. Shop first then study…"_

Two people living in the same place did have some give and take to it, but Naruto had no problems with that. Finding everything he needed in the one place he could always count on, the jinchuriki entered the store, grabbed what he needed, paid for it, and then started the quick march the rest of the way back to his apartment. When he arrived at his corner and looked up toward his apartment where he could clearly see his balcony and floor, he saw that the lights to his flat were on and smiled.

"Tayuya's back already? That's good to know," Naruto exclaimed before heading upstairs. Reaching the third floor, the blonde skillfully whipped out his keys despite having both hands occupied by bags of groceries and unlocked the entrance to his pad. Nudging himself in, he then shut the door with his foot and made his way into the lounge room where he figured his apartment buddy was sitting right now.

He stopped when he saw the television on and gave a puzzled blink when he saw no audience.

Looking around, he set the stuff down and walked in, placing his hands on his hips. "Tayuya-chan?" Scratching his head Naruto headed around the couch to look for the remote before hearing a scuffle over by the other door. He looked up towards the kitchen to see said girl dressed in a V-neck singlet and shorts come strolling out with cupped ramen in hand.

"Hey, Naruto-kun," the redhead exclaimed in greeting, stirring the contents with the pair of chopsticks provided. "Back already?"

"It was a quick dinner. Normally I'd have asked Teuchi-jiji and Ayame-neesan for way more, but I went easy on Iruka-sensei today," Naruto chuckled and rubbed the side of his head. "Three bowls of ramen is better than no bowls at all. That's what I always say."

The red haired flute player shook her head in amusement as she stepped a little further out from the kitchen before starting towards him slowly. "You're such a weirdo. Sometimes I find it hard to believe you're even human, Mr. Broth-for-brains." After stirring the noodles around, she then pulled up a clump of it and slurped it up, giving a satisfied murmur as her answer. "I take it from your stupid grin that you had an enjoyable dinner date?"

"Oh yeah. Iruka-sensei is always great to hang out with. He's like, one of the only guys in this village who's genuinely nice to me and doesn't look at me funny like all of the other adults," Naruto exclaimed with a good-natured laugh. "Even though he can be loud and scary sometimes, I really think Iruka is an awesome teacher."

Before he could open his mouth to continue telling the girl about his talk with his homeroom instructor, his radiant expression suddenly switched from delighted to puzzled when he saw Tayuya continue to slurp up noodles while striding towards him. Eyeing her movements carefully, he then sniffed the air a bit before a small frown crossed his lips, followed shortly by his eyes narrowing into an intense glare.

"You sound really attached to the guy," Tayuya giggled before picking up some vegetables. "Tell me more abou-" She glanced up at the sound of rushing footsteps before her stomach was unexpectedly hit with the force of a charging bull. Giving a strangled shout along with the heavy thud that filled the room; Tayuya was blasted off her feet and slammed into the far wall beside the balcony entrance of the apartment.

The plaster cracked and splintered at the force of the impact before the girl slumped to the floor, bits of residue sprinkling down on her.

"What the fuck?" the girl groaned before looking back up again through a pained face and blood running from the corner of her mouth. "Hey, shit-bag! What the hell was tha-" She stopped when she saw Naruto stop directly over her with a kunai drawn. "For?"

"Who are you?" Naruto hissed, his tone set on dangerous and face overshadowed by his hair, amplifying his already serious appearance several times.

"W-What are you talking about?" Tayuya said back, her own expression deepening. "It's me, you dumbass? Who else do you think it could be?"

Naruto then pointed his kunai straight down at the teen so that it was trained on the center of her face. "Tayuya-chan always eats ramen with her left hand, no matter where she is or who she's around. You're eating ramen with your right hand." The blonde then lowered his weapon. "That and you also smell much different from when the two of us were training together. I can sense your toxic odor above the cupped miso soup you stole from my cupboard."

Staring incredulously up at the boy, 'Tayuya' then gave a smirk and licked up the blood at the corner of her mouth. "My. You're a lot sharper than I remember. I'll give you points for picking up some extra brains over the past couple of years."

"Remember?" Naruto repeated before thrusting the knife further forward. "Talk! Who the hell are you?"

The red head slumped against the wall pulled her knee up to her chest and brushed her hair aside. "Maybe this will help jog your memory." She then burst into a puff of white smoke, the fumes dispersing seconds later to reveal a long, brown-haired woman wearing a familiar dark grey uniform. Naruto's eyes widened when he saw her form emerge fully from the sheath of her transformation. "Well? Ring any bells, sweetie."

"Y-You're?" Naruto choked before swinging his kunai around. Before he could follow-through with an attack however, the boy's eyes widened in horror when he suddenly felt a sharp sting shoot through his entire body from his right side. Mouth dropping and giving out a strangled yelp, the jinchuriki dropped the knife he was holding, the blade clattering loudly on the floor before he looked down to his ribs to see another kunai being driven into his side from an unknown attacker. "W-What the hell is this?"

Looking over his shoulder, half of his question was immediately answered by another familiar face popping into view in the form of the silver haired fox from his younger years. The lead kunoichi of the band of three that had infiltrated his village two years ago to steal information on Konoha's security system grinned slyly at the boy as she knelt behind him with her specialized, curved kunai buried into him.

She twisted the weapon for extra measure, earning another strangled shout from her still standing victim. Blood began seeping out of Naruto's mouth.

"Pay back," the silver haired kunoichi exclaimed, with the third member of the group appearing behind her with her hands on her hips and looking toward the child smugly. "Don't bother calling out for help, though I doubt anyone will be able to hear your cries of terror even if you tried. I've made sure to aim for your lung so that you wouldn't be able to even squeak. You'll bleed to death, but live long enough for us to enjoy this."

"I-It can't be? How are you three even here?" Naruto choked out as best as he could. His gravelly tone registered barely above a whisper thanks to the blade sitting inside of his organ. "I took you down ages ago. Y-You should be rotting in jail right now."

"Should be, could be, would be, but thanks to the little mole hiding out in your cozy little village our sentence has been cut short. Now that we're free to do as we please what better way to turn over a new leaf then by taking out all our years of pent-up frustration on the runt who put us in that hellhole," Noriko exclaimed. "You should be happy… although… not as happy as we'll be when we're through with you."

"That's not fair, Noriko," Shuko whined in disappointment. "I wanted to stab the kid in the back. Why do you get all the kill shots?"

"Because I'm the leader, that's why," Noriko replied before smiling over at her teammate. "But I'll let you break all of his fingers if that'll cheer you up?"

"Oh goodie," the kunoichi exclaimed with a clap.

Noriko chuckled before looking back at the jinchuriki, while their teammate pulled herself to her feet and placed a hand on her hip. They were all dressed in the same uniforms they had worn all those years ago with their swords strapped to their backs. This showed that they were all set and ready for action, but clearly wanted to take their time in wanting to cause the boy they now had at their mercy as much pain as they possibly could.

After all the humiliation he'd put them through in their first encounter, they wanted to make good on their promises to put him through double, even triple the pain he'd caused them.

"So, runt. Where were we?"

"W-What did you do with Tayuya-chan?" Naruto growled, biting his teeth together and shutting his eye as the pain continued to shoot through him. "You better not have hurt her, because if you did…"

"Oh? That little waste of skin?" Noriko chuckled before looking up at Kureha standing in front of them. "She's probably still wandering around the streets doing God-knows what at this time of night. Good thing we saw all those picture of you and her cluttering your nightstand for us to figure out you had a roommate, otherwise this wouldn't have worked out as well as it did."

"Yeah. She's quite the looker too," Kureha commented while rubbing her nose. "We didn't think you even had the sack or smarts to bag an item like that. Good on you."

"But don't worry about kissing her goodbye or anything like that. We'll make sure you're dead and bloodless by the time she gets home and discovers your lifeless corpse lying across the floorboards," Noriko said darkly, twisting the knife a little more. "How does that sound?"

"D-Damn it!" Naruto hissed through his lips.

Where the hell was Tayuya if not here?

OOO

**Elsewhere…**

The red head in question hummed pleasantly to herself as she sat at the local bar just a couple of blocks away from her apartment. True to her words earlier spoken to her dear flat mate, Tayuya was busy enjoying the new item the stand had on the menu tonight.

Teriyaki chicken with fried rice and a side of dumplings; it was exquisite.

It was so exquisite in fact that she'd decided to have _four_ _more_ dishes. Since they were each served small, as a lot of people loved them and it was good for business to leave customers wanting more, the redhead had gone on ahead and spoiled herself over a handful of servings, while making sure to order several as take-away for her to chow down on later and for Naruto to share with her.

Figuring that three bowls of ramen wouldn't be enough for her energetic teammate who needed more fuel to burn in a day than most, and because he did technically have a black hole for a stomach that was very much like hers when it came to delicious treats, Tayuya made sure to plan ahead. She needed meals to please the boy who was letting her stay in his apartment, so she loaded up with everything she could to go along with the other shopping she also needed to do tonight.

Tayuya noticed that they always ran low on milk. That was weird. How could two people burn through four liters in two days?

"_It doesn't matter,"_ Tayuya thought after that brief interlude and picked up another dumpling from the side of her plate. She held it in front of her lips, allowing its aroma to fill her nostrils with its intoxicating smells of oil and hot sauce. _"Naruto-kun will probably do some shopping as well, but I'll do some extra just to make sure he didn't miss anything."_

One thing was certain; Naruto was definitely going to be refilling his cupboards with more ramen. It was the one thing he couldn't live without.

Could you imagine Naruto going for an entire week without ramen? That's like a smoker going cold-turkey.

The thought of a pale, blonde haired jinchuriki lying in a fetal position on the couch while watching television together made Tayuya laugh.

"Yeah. There's no way in hell he'll ever let that happen to himself," the musician laughed before munching down the dumpling. "Man this is good." It was her last serving for the night. She wanted to make this one count.

Looking at the clock hanging over the chef's work area, she figured that Naruto was home by now and waiting for her. Hopefully he would be able to keep it together while waiting for her to return and not make a mess of the place in her absence.

OOO

**Back at the apartment…**

"You… sneaky… despicable…" Naruto began to curse but felt the knife dig in deeper, silencing him.

"Now that's not very nice. You shouldn't say things like that about your guests?" Noriko exclaimed, twisting the blade. Another strangled scream rang out throughout the apartment, sending shivers down the spines of all those present. "Oh, I'm sorry. Am I making you uncomfortable?"

"Actually…" Naruto panted, coughing up more blood before grinning down at the woman still kneeling behind him. "I've got a little cramp in my lower back. C-Could you massage it for me, babe?"

"Too bad," Noriko chuckled before burying the knife at an angle that made the child wince. "I don't usually deviate from my regular services for clients. That's gonna cost you something extra."

"Yeah? Well take your pick from anything you like," Naruto choked out while shakily looking around his apartment. "I've got a whole pile of crap in my bedroom. Take whatever you want."

"We don't give a shit about your stuff," Kureha snapped with a cocky smirk. "All we care about is getting even."

"Do you know all the messed-up shit we were put through after that bullshit fight you had with us two years ago?" Shuko asked with a little more irk in her tone. "After we were treated they sent us to the Interrogation Facility of the ANBU Black Ops to coax information about our group and whatever organization we were working for out of us. If the physical torture wasn't enough, the mental torture got us for sure. Hell, we don't even remember anything from when your Yamanaka guys tiptoed through our brains."

"You sure know how to entertain visitors in this village. There's no question about that," Noriko said to an intently listening Naruto, despite the fact he was probably in unbearable pain right now. "Though it's a shame we won't be able to put you through the same fun and games since you'll be losing all mobility in your body in a few minutes, we'll try to mimic the same material on you for however long you have left."

"Oh I just love surprises," Naruto choked with a cocky grin, "T-Tell me more."

"It was routine over the next year or so," Kureha spoke with distaste in her voice. "They interrogated us then shoved us into a cell somewhere underground and sealed us up for a month, then did the same things the next month. I don't know why they kept us there, but I guess we were just eventually forgotten and left there to rot. Though the quiet times were great and they gave us a few things to keep our sanity and health in check, it also left us plenty of time to think about the perfect way to get back at the person who put us there at the start."

"A lot of time to think and gain 'enlightenment', same as those jumped-up monks in the temples," Shuko said with a sigh and a shrug. "What can you do? It's karma. We did a lot of bad things in our lives and we were punished for it."

"But we served our time, paid for our misdeeds and now here we are," Kureha spoke up again with a reinvigorated smile, "Living it up after spending two years in the ass-end of the world. It feels good. And on that note, I think I owe you this from the last time we met." The woman marched forward and quickly buried her fist into Naruto's stomach. The boy hunched over her arm and spit up more blood, falling into a groaning and coughing fit. Kureha then backed up and shook her fist out. "I've wanted to do that for ages. Damn kid, you've got quite the six-pack on yah."

"Been working out," Naruto choked, looking back up with a pain stricken face. He then smirked. "Oh yeah… it's paid off."

Kureha chuckled forebodingly. "I'll give you this if nothing more… you're tough for a little spit fuck."

"Too bad all that skill and strength you've managed to build are gonna end up wasted," Noriko whispered with a shake of her head, bringing the boy back up to lean against her. "Such a shame. You should have just given us the kunai when we asked."

"If you still want it… it's in my room… on my nightstand," Naruto spat.

"Forget it. The information on the paper around it is long gone, so it's nothing more than a rusty old knife now," Noriko said with a frown, seconds before a smirk sprouted. "But at least we'll be leaving with a few more neat things under our belt and not just the updated Intel on your village's security system. There's a sweet deal waiting for us outside of this village, but thankfully we were able to sneak in this last little meeting with you before our exit from the stage. I guess it's curtain call, kid."

"J-Just one last thing before you go on and have your way with me," Naruto choked.

"I'm listening."

"W-Who was it that let you out?" the boy asked in an incredibly strained voice. "You mentioned a rat in our village? Who is it?"

"No one important. He's just a small fish swimming in a big pond. I doubt someone like that matters in a world like this and should matter even less to someone like you," Noriko replied, keeping her details short and to a minimum while at the same time failing to divulge anything of importance whatsoever. A classic triple-threat. "You're just a baby-faced academy student about to die. I think that fact alone speaks for itself."

"But shouldn't the dying… get one last request?"

"Depends on the request," Shuko said while folding her arms.

"Y-You said you had something else waiting for you when this whole thing was all over… th-that means you made a deal with this person?" Naruto asked, his words spacing as he was struggling to speak right now. His legs and arms were still shaking, showing that he was in incredible pain. This at least kept his hosts entertained. "What was involved with this deal b-besides me? He let you out… not just to free you so you could get back at me… he let you guys out for something else? Right?"

"Yes," Noriko nodded.

"What's the grand prize?" Naruto asked while gritting his teeth.

"You want spoilers?"

"Duh," Naruto coughed, at the same time seeing his attacker hesitate. "Come on… you're cold-blooded killers about to break me for good. Can't you give a dying kid one last hurrah?"

"That's our choice. I can just cut your throat now and be done with you, but Shuko still has to break your fingers," Noriko spoke back.

"Well, just so you don't leave this place with your souls completely torn apart from straight-up torturing and killing a baby-faced academy student and feeling proud about it," Naruto spoke again while shrugging off-handedly, "The very least you could do is give him this last little thing. Just this once. Come on." He whined childishly. "It's not like I'm gonna tell anyone. Plus I can't even scream, so there's your advantage with getting away with it."

Noriko gritted her teeth and glared back at the kid. After about half a minute of soul searching and looking into the puppy-dog eyes the blonde was able to send her despite the supposed excruciating situation he was in, the woman relented.

Just so her conscience wasn't scarred for life for doing this in the first place, she spilled the beans so to speak. "Fine. Last request. We made a deal with the Chunin who let us out to cause a distraction for him to steal the _Scroll of Seals_ from the Hokage's mansion. He's waiting for that signal right now, but we won't give it to him until we set off the explosives we have hidden at the entrance to this village."

"So… you have some kind of firework show set up to make it look like the village is being attacked. You set them off, you distract the guard, your jail-breaker makes a grab for the _Scroll of Seals_, and then runs off when no one is looking," Naruto said while nodding, feigning an expression that he was impressed. "Sounds good."

"After that we're supposed to meet up with him out in the woods," Noriko said with a frown. "There's a way out through there that he's going to take to leave this village. We meet at the rendezvous point and finish the trade while Konoha's forces are still running around trying to figure out what the hell's going on. It's that simple."

"The guy also wanted us to snuff you out as a sort of added bonus to the whole gig," Kureha said while shrugging. "Personally, we have no problem with that."

"While instead of finishing one job, we kill two birds with one stone," Shuko exclaimed with a smirk. "Well… three. We get Intel, a portion of the _Scroll of Seal's_ secrets and your blood."

"All in all, it's a damn good day," Noriko said while tightening her grip on the knife and driving it further into the kid's side.

"See? Now was that so hard?" Naruto asked while smiling at the woman kneeling behind him and peering over his shoulder. He sounded surprisingly chipper and back-to-his-usual-self for someone with a knife in his side. "Instead of killing your target swiftly you can kill him with theatrical style. I'm thinking of adding that to my repertoire when I finally get to go out to do big missions for my village. Saving damsels, assassinating criminals, helping people… man, I'm really looking forward to becoming a Jonin."

"Well good luck with that. I just hope that… hey! Hang on a second!" Realizing something was wrong, Noriko glared suspiciously at the boy now blankly staring at her from over his shoulder, "How come you're able to talk normally now?"

The boy tried to look confused. "Hmm? Whatever do you mean?"

The two kunoichi in the room also noticed his change from outright suffering to trading casual pleasantries. Wasn't he supposed to be in absolute agony right now?

Noriko then looked him up and down. "Second of all, why aren't you on the floor yet? You're bleeding internally and have a knife shoved into you. You should be half-passed dead right now."

"Oh that… well," Naruto grinned sheepishly at the woman. "Magician's secret."

Looking alarmed, the leader of the kunoichi then lifted up the boy's jacket to find out what the fuck was going on. When she did and had his mid-section exposed, she saw to her utter shock a thick body cast the same color as Naruto's skin wrapped around his waist. Acting like a protective vest, the cast prevented the knife from slipping into his ribs and into his lung. It merely redirected it and had the blade poking sideways.

"H-How? What?" Noriko looked up at her grinning victim in alarm.

How the hell did he know he was going to get stabbed? There was no way he could have seen this coming and acted against it! There was no way!

Their strategy was flawless.

Naruto, who still had 'blood' running down from his mouth, chuckled. "You fell for the fake 'waist line' trick." He then stuck out his tongue, where he revealed a packet of ketchup sitting and had been torn open with his teeth.

Noriko's eyes widened a split second before the jinchuriki suddenly and without warning dropped straight down and out of her hold. Back-flipping right off the floor, the blonde then rammed a knee straight into her startled face, the blow smashing into her nose and sending the kunoichi's body reeling back with blood flying from the offending orifice. While the silver haired kunoichi was recoiling, her partner Shuko rushed forward and drew her sword to slice at the still airborne Naruto.

While suspended in mid-attack, Naruto dropped a hand to the floor, pivoted on it and pushed off. Jumping even higher upside-down, he then spun a kick straight into the approaching woman's sword, the momentum allowing him to kick it out of her hand before slapping _his_ against her side.

"**Jet Hand!"**

A loud whoosh blasted off of the shocked woman's side and sent her careening across the room to plow straight into the wall beside the television. The loud crack echoed throughout the entire apartment before her body dropped to the floor unconscious.

Landing in a crouched stance at the same time Noriko fell back onto the floor Naruto looked behind him to see Kureha charging at him with her sword thrusting downward. Before she even had the chance to finish swinging, her target leapt back off the ground and slid underneath her legs, appearing behind her when she stumbled forwards, missing her mark entirely.

When she turned to face him alongside the downed team leader, who was now holding her broken nose between her fingers, they saw the blonde crouched on the floor like a monkey grinning deviously before holding up a pink-laced bra and matching panties. He dangled them before the puzzled kunoichi teasingly. "Missing something?"

Recognizing the articles, Kureha squealed in fright, dropped her sword, held herself on the ground and crossed all her limbs. While blushing a brilliant shade of red, the woman glared furiously up at the boy, "YOU LITTLE PERVERT!"

Naruto laughed hysterically. "You would think that you girls would learn from the last time you met me."

Noriko glared hatefully across at the child while her friend crouched shivering on the ground next to her, muttering endlessly about how in the seven levels of hell the boy had managed to get his hands on her undergarments. _"This is bad. He's gotten even faster and stronger since the last time we met, while we were all just sitting around and rotting in jail. Not only that, the fact that he's so small makes his speed even more ridiculous. What the hell is this boy?"_

Shaking her head, the team leader glared at her partner. "Finish him and let's go!"

"What about Shuko?" Kureha asked.

"Take her! But deal with the rat first! He fights by avoiding a direct exchange and he's damn good at it, and we're on his turf!" The woman then hopped into a crouching position and rotated towards the window. "Do whatever you can then meet at the rendezvous point! I'll set off the explosives!" After receiving a nod from her still conscious partner the woman then leapt straight out the nearby window, not even bothering that it was closed and ruining another part of the apartment.

"Oh, no you don't!" Naruto shouted, tossing the underwear and rushing forward. He was quickly intercepted by Kureha who sliced at him with her katana, which he swayed under and leapt to the other side of her when she spun to meet him.

"You're not going anywhere you little shit!" she shouted, lunging at him with another slash.

Naruto ducked that and the follow-ups when she advanced on him as she tried to dice up his upper body. He kept swaying, bobbing and weaving under all of her strikes, before wordlessly grabbing a hold of one of her arms when it came back around and kicking off the floor. Using her momentum, the boy suddenly flipped up till he was literally hand-standing on her arm. As if he was viewing the world in slow motion, he saw her expression widen into shock.

"As long as I believe I can do something… nothing is impossible for me!" He flipped over her so that he started descending to the ground behind the woman. Kureha spun around to intercept, but he was already spinning his body like a top while upside-down in mid-fall, sending a kick flying for her head. "This is why I can keep fighting and win, even against you!"

His kick slammed across Kureha's face and had her spinning to the ground, which then allowed him to land as well. Naruto landed atop his solid floor the exact same time her body crashed into it.

Just as the woman struggled to her feet and backed away in a daze, Naruto lunged swiftly at her and slapped his hand against her stomach. A second _**Jet Hand**_ propelled her off her feet and sent her crashing straight through his lounge room wall, across the street and into another apartment block through the closed window. She was unconscious the moment she was sent flying through his wall, so she was spared from the pain of land fall.

The brief spar between them showed just how much Naruto had improved over the years. However, he could also attribute his victory tonight because his opponents were also two years out of practice from being stuck in a jail cell the entire time, so it took some of the fun out of it.

Not forgetting that one of them got away, the boy ran over to the window and looked out, intent on following…

However, this plan was cut short when he looked down at the street below and saw a familiar face looking up at him.

"Tayuya-chan?!"

"What the hell was that, Naruto?" the red head shouted, pointing after the escaping woman.

It was crazy. She just saw a person leap out of their apartment, fly across the street, land on top of a telephone pole, and look down long enough for the musician to get a good shot of her face before disappearing across the rooftops.

"Gate crasher!" the jinchuriki shouted back and pointed after her. "She tried to knife me!"

Eyes widening, Tayuya dropped the shopping bags in her hands and immediately leapt up towards their building. Kicking off the wall, she sprang after the retreating figure. "I'm on it!" She was gone before Naruto could get another word in.

"_She can handle her,"_ Naruto thought before turning back towards his apartment and quickly walking towards the kitchen. _"My best friend trained by me and a psychotic snake-lady up against a Chunin with Genin-level skills two years out of practice. Sounds like a fair fight."_

He hurried back into the living room where he then proceeded to tie up Shuko, after which he hopped across the road, collected the unconscious Kureha, and brought her back to his place for the same treatment. Dusting his hands down like it were your everyday chore to tie up two kunoichi and have them propped up against your living room wall, he then knelt beside the one with the short brown hair and tossed a glass of water over her.

The woman was woken from her slumber with a startled yelp and, upon shaking off the shock of ice cold water dripping down her face, looked around wildly.

"W-W-What happened?" Shuko's answer came to her in the form of her hair being grabbed at the top and her head being forcibly turned towards the jinchuriki, who glared down at her.

"Talk! I want straight answers from you!" Naruto said in a surprisingly commanding voice, quite the opposite of his character. Being the most unpredictable knuckle-headed shinobi of the village however, he could make it work for him. He damn well pulled off the best close to dying act anyone had ever seen just several minutes ago so a tough guy act? Piece of cake. "Who broke you three out of jail? Who's after the _Scroll of Seals_?"

"W-Wha…"

He silenced her with a hard glare. "Answer me! Who told you where I lived? Who wanted you three to kill me?"

Finally realizing her situation and remembering where she was, the kunoichi with the short hair glared back at the boy firmly. "I'm not telling you jack all!"

Gritting his teeth, Naruto's head suddenly shot up when he heard a loud explosion and felt his entire building shake. Looking around, he quickly figured out that _that_ was the signal the team's leader was instructed to set off to begin the theft operation and escape. With Tayuya hot on the perpetrator's trail he knew the signal-woman would be cut off soon enough, but he still needed to find out the identity of the mastermind behind this entire thing. Shaking his head, he turned his attention back Shuko.

"TALK!" He banged her head against the wall, not enough to knock her out but enough to rattle her brain. "You're captured! You're done! You failed! There's no need to keep anything from me anymore. The interrogators are bound to find out everything sooner or later, so spill it!" He banged her head again. "Who set you free?"

"Hmph," Shuko smirked. "You won't get anything out of me, brat. I've gone through shit worse than anything a nose-wiping little kid like you can think up for the past two years! I may be beaten but I still have my pride as a kunoichi. Do your worst."

Staring at her blankly for a moment, the blonde than gave her his most devious smirk. This devilish smile was then multiplied several times over by a shadow crossing over his eyes which became incredibly fox-like from how he was now leering at her. This had the kunoichi start sweating bullets instantly as his teeth slowly started to show fangs.

"You know, I can put you through even more humiliating stuff than what I did to you guys two years ago. Believe it. I can do way worse than just slap you around, pull down your pants and unbuckle your chastity. While you three were stewing away in a cell doing nothing but slacking off, I've been training and working hard on perfecting my craft as a master prankster and a public nuisance," Naruto grinned before wagging his eyebrows suggestively. "Now… I wonder what kind of underwear you're wearing this time. Care to show and tell?"

Paling at the prospects of having her undergarments stolen from right out under her… again, the woman began excreting waterfall's worth of sweat with a brief but defiant shake of her head… before eventually caving in to the pressure…

"ALRIGHT! FINE!" she screamed with a red face, before glaring up at the still grinning blonde. "I'll talk. Just don't steal my underwear."

"I won't. Now sing for me. Who gave you all the information you know and sent you to kill me?"

"A Chunin with white, short hair and wearing a bandanna with your village's headband," Shuko answered firmly. "He said his name was Mizuki."

Recoiling a little at the identity of the brain, Naruto's gaze tightened. "Why did he want you three to kill me?"

"He said it was personal and nothing else. He knew that you were the one that put us away, so he threw us a bone."

"And the _Scroll of Seals_?"

"A scroll sealed away by the First Hokage said to contain all of the village's most dangerous kinjutsu. It's one of the most valuable items in _Konohagakure_ and that Mizuki guy said he wanted it all for himself."

"Alright and where's your rendezvous point?" Naruto asked with a stone hard glare. "Where were you three going to meet him after you dealt with me?"

"An old shack in the west woods," Shuko replied quickly with a nod in the direction of. "After that huge explosion we set, odds are he's already got the scroll and is heading straight there. He'll be outside the _Land of Fire_ by sunrise."

"Unless somebody stops him," Naruto said with a smile appearing on his face. Seeing the surprised and doubtful look on the woman's face, he smirked even wider. "I know every forest in this village like the back of my hand. No one can outrun me on my turf."

"You know he's a _Konohagakure_ Chunin," Shuko pointed with a frown. "He'll kill you…"

"Please," Naruto rolled his eyes, "Whenever Chunin were sent after me after I painted the _Hokage Monument _or lined their uniforms with itching powder, I ran circles around them." He then nodded politely to the woman scowling at him from the floor. "Thanks for all that, by the way. I owe you."

"Untie me," the kunoichi snapped.

Naruto grinned cheekily at her. "No can do. After what you did to me back there, you're going back to jail." He then stuck his finger in his mouth, "Wet Willy," and then stuck it in her ear, getting the kunoichi to squirm and snap at him.

"I hate you."

"I know," Naruto chuckled before bringing his other hand around and flashing the girl a pair of black panties and a bra right in her startled face. "You did one hell of a wardrobe change too. Good job." He then quickly ran for it just as the woman turned a bright scarlet and shrieked after his retreating shadow.

"YOU PERVERT! YOU SAID TO ME THAT YOU WOULDN'T! HOW THE FUCK DO YOU EVEN DO THAT?!"

"Magician's secret!" Naruto yelled back, his voice echoing into the room from the window he just jumped out of, leaving one flustered kunoichi and another unconscious one…

OOO

**Elsewhere…**

**Minutes earlier…**

Noriko was pissed.

Not only was her team's side-mission completely ruined thanks to the quick-wittedness and sly actions of the most troublesome opponent they'd ever come across, but her cover was also blown and she was running for the hills. She was sure if Kureha couldn't deal with the brat and was somehow taken out again, she had no doubt in her mind that the kid would immediately head off to alert the home forces of the real game playing out in the shadows, which was why she was moving as fast as she was now.

If there was a chance that that brat was still alive after facing off against her teammate, then she needed to catch Mizuki before he got out. There was no way in hell he was cheating them out on their deal.

"_On that note,"_ the kunoichi thought, stopping on the rooftop of a building over a dozen blocks out from the jinchuriki's apartment and turning around. Flipping through several hand seals, she then finished in the sheep seal and grinned. "Katsu!"

The moment she gave the command, a pillar of fire and smoke suddenly rocketed into the sky on the horizon and bathed the village in an orange glow. The shockwave that came with it reached her several seconds later.

The affected area was in the vicinity of _Konohagakure's_ main entrance, one of the most likely places an invading force would try to take first when mounting an assault on a fortified community. Think about it. What enemy army would be stupid enough to attack a several-story high wall in an attempt to invade a hidden village when there was a perfectly good gate out the front?

Since that was where the main highway from the village started, it would definitely be at the top of the list of targets you needed to take out first. The explosion was big enough to fill the sky and cause the earth to tremble even where the kunoichi was standing a few kilometers out. Watching the fire begin to below black smog and embers into the atmosphere, right on schedule Noriko was able to see countless Konoha shinobi left and right begin making their way to the disaster zone in force.

She could see their silhouettes bounding across rooftops. This was definitely the reserve guard being called up to repel the 'attack' on the village.

"_Well… that certainly got their attention,"_ Noriko chuckled before turning heel and beginning to make her way to the rendezvous point, _"Time to seek the nearest exit."_

Just as she was about to take off however, the sound of kunai flying through the air stopped her in her tracks, three knives cutting right past where she would have been a second earlier before her path was cut off by Tayuya skidding to a stop directly in front of her. The red haired musician glared straight at the kunoichi with her fingers balled and her holster unclasped, ready for a fight. Noriko paused at the sight of her and glared back in mild surprise.

"Aren't you? Yeah, I figured it was you," Noriko chuckled harshly. "You're that little shit's roommate. Tayuya, right?"

"I'm not letting you move one step further," Tayuya stated, yanking her flute out of her holster and holding it up in her usual grip. "I'm taking you down right here and now."

Noriko stared incredulously at the girl for a moment before giving off a raucous laugh. "You want to fight me, girl?"

"You bet I do," the red head exclaimed with a smirk. "Bring it."

The silver haired kunoichi was quick to frown before spreading her feet apart in a solid fighting stance. She made a draw for her sword, at the exact same time Tayuya raised her flute to her lips. "You're out of your league, twerp. I'll cut you down before you even get the chance to blow a single note from that instrument of yours."

"We'll see," Tayuya shot back before breathing in.

The exact moment the red head acted, Noriko lunged at her, drawing her sword. The blade of her weapon flashed under the light of the moon and alerted the young musician to the danger of an incoming attack. However, the moment she got to within ten paces of her, Tayuya had already started playing, filling the air with a beautiful melody that, from the attacking kunoichi's point of view, suddenly flooded the air with what appeared to be heat waves.

What looked like heat in fact turned out to be sound waves wafting off of the girl's flute and disturbing the atmosphere, which rammed into the dashing kunoichi swordswoman and stopped her dead in her tracks. Feeling like she was hit by an invisible wall, Noriko gave a pained yelp and staggered away, a split second before her body seized up and stiffened like a board.

Eyes widening in horror, the trembling woman, whose ears were now being clogged with the sound of gentle flute music, looked around her to see her world distort into a mishmash of white, red and black paint. When she looked down to see what was happening to her body, she saw that her feet were beginning to melt into the ground and that snakes were starting to jut out of every part of her body to coil around her. The boa constrictors fulfilled their intended purpose as natural binders before sinking their fangs into the kunoichi, paralyzing her and keeping her frozen.

"W-What the hell is this?" Noriko choked out.

"_**Mateki: Mugen Hebi Onsa."**_ _(Demonic Flute: Phantom Snake Sound Chains)_

Looking up in alarm, Noriko saw the redhead materialize out of thin air in front of her, no longer playing her flute but wielding a kunai. The young girl, top half solid with her bottom half still forming out of smoke, furrowed her brow at her bound target before lunging at her with the knife.

Alarmed, the silver haired kunoichi acted fast. Biting down on the corner of her lip and drawing blood, Noriko sent a bolt of pain shooting through her brain, jump-starting her nervous system and snapping her out of her trance.

Awakening from the genjutsu immediately had Noriko's senses set on overdrive, allowing the woman to quickly evade the attack from Tayuya and counter with her sword. The red head barreled right passed the woman's previous position, barely avoiding the sword when it came down on her and rolling to avoid her follow-up. Stopping in an all-fours position, Tayuya then glared over her shoulder at her opponent to see the woman glaring back at her, not only with a busted nose but with blood trickling down from her lip.

"_Damn it! I thought I had her,"_ Tayuya thought with a frown. _"She's obviously skilled enough to know how to break out of genjutsu, which means she has Chunin level experience, but judging from how rigid her movements are she hasn't been in practice for a while. I'll definitely be able to win in a close-quarters fight if I force it, but it looks as though she wants to keep this engagement at a distance."_

It was annoying, but Tayuya was proficient enough at middle-range to feel confident about a swift victory.

Getting up, the redhead turned to face the glaring kunoichi to see the woman drive her sword into the roof, where she then left it to stand.

Aware of her disadvantage at close-range thanks to being in a cell for the last two years and having her body worked over in interrogation, Noriko reached back into her two pouches and grabbed a cluster of shuriken in each. Her smirk reappeared in full force. "You know some interesting tricks for a flute player, speck. But I won't be falling for anymore of them like I did to that punk you call a friend. Honestly, I have no idea what you see in him."

Tayuya gritted her teeth. "Naruto-kun is a good person! He saved my life and gave me a home! He's my friend!"

"Whatever," the kunoichi spat before widening her stance. "It's high time for me to leave. I'll take you out before you get another chance to trap me. No more games."

"_No doubt she's going for her shuriken. So it's a stand-off?"_ Tayuya thought as her grip around her flute tightened uneasily. She considered it carefully, all the while making sure her opponent was standing well within her sights as she rose back up to full height. _"Obviously she won't risk another charge while I've got my flute. She'll try to hit me quickly with throwing weapons before I can cast another genjutsu, and then finish me off with another dash. I can dodge her throwing weapons… but I won't get another chance to trap her while we're at this distance. She'll have me ducking and dodging to prevent me from producing illusions."_

She cursed at her inability to play her flute while in motion. It was a weakness she made a note to cover up later.

Ridding herself of any further thoughts on the matter, Tayuya silently measured the amount of space between them as she slowly began to ease around, the kunoichi in front keeping the flute player locked inside of her crosshairs.

"_I can't put distance between us to try for another song, she'll just use that opportunity to get away and I don't think the effectiveness of my sound waves will be able to travel fast enough to catch her,"_ Tayuya concluded before stopping. Realizing the futility of her flute playing in this chess game, she carefully slid it back into her holster and widened her stance. Her fingers twitched as she eyed her opponent carefully._ "I'll just have to get close to her. The moment she throws her shuriken, I'll swing around and move in."_

"_She's thinking of getting in close to me,"_ Noriko thought with a deepening frown. After watching her opponent ease around and put away her flute after a full minute of facing off, the kunoichi began breaking down the scenario that was bound to play out in the next few seconds. She knew that their next exchange would be their last._ "She's really perceptive for a brat. Just from looking at the way I acted she knows I'll be able to keep her from using her flute with throwing weapons, so she's going to try for a close-quarter engagement instead. I'm not going to deny that she can't pull her weight, my body is feeling pretty heavy from lack of training."_ A smile then brimmed on her face after some moments of thought, while her hands holding the shuriken behind her twitched before suddenly forming a hand seal out of sight of her weary foe. _"If you want to try and get to me, be my guest. I have a little surprise for you."_

It wasn't long until the silence of the stand-off was effectively broken, with Tayuya making the first move. The red head ducked in low and charged right in, intent on cutting short the kunoichi's plan and closing the distance between them quickly.

"Saw it!" Noriko shouted, throwing both arms forward and unleashing a barrage of shuriken upon her target. She then clapped her hands in finality of the jutsu she had performed. "_**Gen'ei Tajū Shuriken!"**_ (_Multiple Phantom Shuriken_) The second she did, the barrage of eight metal stars she chucked at her target multiplied tenfold, forming a wall of spiraling metal flying at the girl in an uncoordinated formation.

Tayuya looked up in alarm, seeing the wall of blades bearing down on her.

Quickly realizing that it was physically impossible to throw so many shuriken at the exact same time the redhead calmed her nerves and listened to the air carefully. The world around her slowed by several seconds as she honed in on the approaching weapons and broke down the mechanics of the technique. _"She multiplied the number of shuriken through a genjutsu; an optical illusion designed to confuse the enemy. If that's the case, then the real ones should be the ones breaking the air and making noise, so…"_ Eyes snapping open, her pupils darted through the wind from one area to the other, before she finally picked up on a dead spot coming from, "The right!" Tayuya swiftly changed directions in mid-charge and barreled to her side evasively.

Rolling under the shuriken wall, seeing some pass through her yet ultimately dodging the real ones completely, she then sprang back up and rushed at her opponent. She then slapped her hands together to form a hand seal to a technique she'd just recently finished learning and began the sequence. _**"Katon…"**_

"_**-Gokakyu no Jutsu!"**_ (_Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique_) Noriko shouted a split second before breathing out a torrent of fire at the approaching Tayuya, seeing the girl look up with a start towards the massive ball of flames flying straight at her._ "Too slow, kid!"_

Seeing the torrent shooting through the air towards her in the form of a fiery wall, it appeared that Tayuya was done for. However, while still running forward and flipping through hand seals, unsure of what to do next, the girl then spotted a rather small yet barely noticeable opening in the attack that seemed to encompass her entire view of the world in front of her.

For some strange reason, she could see her opponent's feet underneath the gigantic sphere of flames now threatening to run her down…

Seizing the opportunity and gaining inspiration from Naruto's fighting methods, the red head threw her upper body backwards and dropped herself onto her back in mid-sprint, resulting in her literally sliding right underneath the giant fireball. By the time she hit the deck, and both she and the attack meant for her grazed passed each other by a hair, the musician had already finished forming hand seals. _**"-Hosenka-" **_A quick inhale later and Tayuya slid within range of her target, who'd finished expelling flames from her mouth and was now looking straight down at the girl sliding towards her in shock.

"What?!"

"_**-no Jutsu!"**__ (Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique)_

"SHIT!"

Tayuya fired off a smaller, much more versatile ball of fire at the woman, nailing her square in the chest followed shortly by a dozen more. The volley of fire balls exploded against the enemy kunoichi repeatedly, causing her to stagger away yelping out with every hit before she was inevitably sent careening over the side of the building when Tayuya fired off her last and most devastating shot at the woman.

Noriko's charred body flew across the street, rammed into a billboard, and fell three stories to the ground where she landed with a deafening thud. Any villagers wandering the streets below leapt away from the crash site in surprise, having not expected for some random person to suddenly come dropping out of the sky like a sack of potatoes.

After sliding to a stop after a successful attack, Tayuya breathed a sigh of relief, stood and walked over to the edge of the building she was on. Peering over to see the unconscious form of the woman far below, the red head grinned and pumped a fist in victory.

"Fuck yeah, dattebayo!" She then saw the villagers on the street below look up at her oddly and blushed. Tayuya quickly raised a hand in apology, "S-Sorry…"

OOO

**Half an hour later…**

**Elsewhere…**

Though it had been a close shave, to have slipped right underneath the Third Hokage's nose and get out with trophy wrapped firmly in hand, the sense of accomplishment and the feeling of pulling off the impossible never felt so good.

Seriously. This feeling of success and joy filled Mizuki's heart and soul as he flew through the trees at top speed, _Scroll of Seals_ over his shoulder and a massive grin on his face.

Chuckling to himself, the man stopped when he came across the familiar hut situated in the middle of the woods surrounding the village; the agreed upon destination where he would cross paths with the trio of kunoichi he had hired on as extra help for the last time. Since this was entirely his plan, he knew exactly what he needed to do, where he needed to be and at what time he needed to be there, all in order to clear up the last of his debts. It was something akin to starting a new life with a clean slate.

He wanted to make sure the cannon fodder did their job, killed the Kyuubi brat, and made it out of there scot-free. The last thing he wanted was an entire village on his heel if they somehow caught wind of him through them.

On the other hand…

"Why would I need to worry about an entire village when I have this?" the man chuckled while tapping his fingers against the massive scroll hanging behind him. "I've got all the power I need right here. Once I learn everything I need from this scroll, I'll become the most powerful shinobi in the world, maybe in all of history!" It _did_ belong to Hashirama Senju at one time after all. That definitely had to count for something.

Once that thought crossed his mind and knowing full well that he finally had his main objective in his possession, Mizuki quickly concluded right then and there that he didn't _need_ to uphold his end of the bargain. This whole business with the three kunoichi and killing Naruto; they were just bumps in the road, mere stepping stones. He only needed to get over them to continue on his way, and what better way to do that then do that right now?

He didn't have to wait around for the extra baggage and risk getting caught. They could have their revenge on the brat. They got the Intel they wanted anyway.

Chuckling, Mizuki rose to full height on the branch and patted his prize. "So long, Konoha," the man sang.

Just as he was about to take off however, he suddenly heard a rustling of bushes ahead of him and stopped in his tracks. When he looked up to see what the noise was, the man got quite the surprise when he saw Naruto Uzumaki himself drop down from the canopy and land on the branch across from his. The blonde, looking grungy from an obvious sprint through the forest, huffed impatiently before fixing his best glare on the white haired man.

"Caught yah," the blonde exclaimed with a victorious smirk.

Mizuki blinked in shock. "N-Naruto? How in the world did you find me?" Or better yet, how in the hell was he still alive? Didn't he send those three dogs after him to tear him to shreds? What the hell was going on?

Naruto chuckled and wiped his nose proudly. "The next time you want someone killed; better to do it yourself than to hire out a bunch of deadbeats to do it for you, Mizuki-_sensei_." He said the last suffix with a lot of spite in his voice.

"_Fuck. They screwed up. How could they screw up? I thought…"_ Mizuki cursed in his head, grinding his teeth in frustration before allowing a smirk to come back to him. He faced the boy with renewed interest and confidence. "Hmph. So you're not as pathetic as you made yourself out to be after all these years at the academy, Naruto. I'm impressed."

"Thanks."

"You've really come a long way from the little street shit you were when you first set foot in that place."

"And _you've_ really come a long way from the whiney, boring, poor excuse of a substitute teacher you were when _I_ first laid eyes on you when I first set foot in that place. I've gotta admit, this whole trying-to-kill-me-business and stealing Hokage-jiji's scroll has put you in a new light for me, teme."

"Likewise. But I don't have time to play around with the likes of you," Mizuki replied while shouldering the large scroll hanging from him, which the blonde eyed carefully for the briefest of moments. "I've got a relic to cash in. This thing's got a lot of secrets to share with me and I don't intend to waste them."

"That's funny, because I don't hear it talking back to me the same way," Naruto replied harshly, clenching his fists. When he did the canopy above him rustled again and he was soon joined by a small band of macaques and gibbons, which appeared around him on the branches. When the sight of the monkeys surrounding Naruto didn't surprise Mizuki, then the swallows that suddenly darted out from behind the man certainly did. When the little birds perched on the blonde's shoulders, the jinchuriki frowned. "I'd like you to give that back now."

"Not a chance in hell," Mizuki barked with a grin, before drawing a massive Fuma shuriken from behind him and snapping it open. The massive star between his fingers then began to spin like a saw blade. "It's mine! If you want it, then you'll just have to pry it from my cold, dead hands!"

Naruto chuckled darkly. "I was hoping you'd say that." The animals around him dispersed the moment Mizuki threw the massive shuriken at him. Timing its approach, Naruto ducked right under it and sprang straight across at the Chunin, who leapt at him in kind with kunai drawn.

"Since those three kunoichi I sent after you failed," the man roared, taking a swing at the boy and watching him spin around it, before the two passed each other and traded branches, "Then I'll just have to kill you myself!" They turned and glared at one another, a split second before Mizuki leapt with a wide lunge. "Die!"

Naruto waited for the man's blade to come within range. It was the moment it appeared just inches from hitting him the blonde swayed back till he literally fell over the side of the branch, but instead of falling to an untimely death, his legs hooked onto the branch and he swung around it. His body rocked like a weight and went right under the still lunging shinobi, whom he appeared directly underneath a second later and sent a full-swinging uppercut right into his stomach. With a yell of effort, Naruto drove a punch with the force of a piston straight into Mizuki's gut, a loud thud ringing out and causing spit to fly from the man's mouth.

Beginning to fall straight towards the forest floor after receiving the counter, Mizuki choked in disbelief. _"What power. How can he hit so hard?"_ It was when he began spinning towards the ground the Chunin remembered the boy's sparring matches of months past and how he was able to knock-out the genius Sasuke Uchiha with a single punch that one time. It was this memory of that particular incident alone that jogged Mizuki out of his stunned descent. _"That's right… taijutsu is one of his strongest points. Shit!"_

Flipping to control his fall, Mizuki landed hard on the ground below and spun around; glaring up to see the boy perched up on the same branch high above and looking down at him. From the angle Mizuki stood at and was now glaring at his target from, the boy looked very much like a monkey with his left arm swinging in front of him and his form crouched on the section of tree.

The sound of animal calls filled the air as the Chunin felt himself get pelted by seeds and berries from the family of monkeys up in the canopy. The man held an arm up in annoyance when the projectiles came dangerously close to his face.

"Punk," Mizuki muttered, tossing a barrage of shuriken at the blonde. He watched the boy dodge them and leap to swing around the tree. When he appeared on the other side the Chunin threw a kunai after him, and then another, but the boy kept leaping through into the canopy evasively and disappeared before the white haired thief could take another shot at him. "Damn it!"

For several minutes Naruto was gone from sight with no trace of him to be found. All Mizuki could do was search fruitlessly through the treetops for any signs of him from where he was on the ground, weapons at the ready and an intense look on his face. It pissed the man off that the boy was so good at hiding and that he also had characteristics of a wild animal, which made the Chunin consider setting the entire place on fire to try and smoke him out.

However, when it appeared as though the blonde had fled the scene, a light thump suddenly resounded behind Mizuki that had him spin around and look with a start. Drawing the last Fuma shuriken on his back, he ditched the weapon straight at his target that he now saw dashing straight at him from a distance, the windmill blade cutting a fine path across the grass. It seemed like a sure hit, until Naruto swayed right under it and continued on unhindered towards the Chunin.

"You _are_ like a fucking cat," Mizuki shouted, charging at the boy in kind and throwing a full roundhouse kick at him. Naruto leapt over it and countered with a jumping side kick straight into his opponent's chest, which sent his foe blasting back. Upon skidding to a stop, the winded Chunin glared up to see his little target swing around and lunge in at him again. The man countered with a left jab, only to see Naruto duck under it with his right hand extending towards his side, which immediately had alarm bells ringing in Mizuki's head, _"Shit! __**That**__ jutsu…!"_

He remembered seeing what Naruto did earlier today out on the firing range with Iruka. He saw and heard what the boy was capable of performing when his hand came in contact with something. This was a jutsu he had seen and wanted to stay well out of reach from. So, upon spotting the boy's counter coming in low, the man reacted instantly by disengaging from his jab and kicked off the ground as fast and as hard as he could. The result was the jinchuriki's swing missing him by inches and Mizuki leaping off to the side in full retreat, sweat pouring down his face.

"_I'm keeping the hell away from him! With his ridiculous speed, evasive tendencies and that jutsu; it's dangerous to try and go toe to toe with him," _Mizuki thought, landing a safe distance away and sliding to a stop. Upon watching Naruto turn to face him, he removed the _Scroll of Seals_ from his back, propped it beside him, and began flipping through hand seals._ "I'll fight this one from a distance!"_ He then tossed a barrage of shuriken and slapped his hands together. _**"Futon: Reppusho!"**__ (Wind Release: Gale Palm)_

A blast of wind emanated from around Mizuki's body and was sent careening towards his small target. While this appeared to be just an ordinary gust of wind with no real piercing power, the true value behind the technique was to speed up the shuriken he threw, which he sent towards the blonde haired boy at an even greater speed. The shower of throwing knives whipped and twisted on the powerful air currents, threatening to cut the boy down in a rain of metal.

Naruto reacted to the danger and immediately dove behind the tree behind him, the wind smashing into the trunk, resulting in the shuriken impaling nothing but wood. The increased strength and power of the knives though did chip away bigger chunks and dug in much further than they would have on their own, but they ultimately failed in hitting the boy, now concealing himself from the storm.

Mizuki grinned when he saw the boy take cover, "Ha! What's the matter, Naruto?! Where'd all those fancy moves of yours go?"

He saw the boy look around momentarily.

When Naruto ducked back behind the tree and waited for a bit, he then suddenly appeared on the other side and fired off something small from the gauntlet on his wrist, which Mizuki intercepted with a shuriken and knocked it out of the air.

The firework exploded when it was hit, detonating safely out of range of its target.

Mizuki cackled in amusement, "Your little tricks won't work on me a second time, Naruto! I've seen them before!" He began flipping through more hand seals, something the jinchuriki was able to spot when he poked his head around to take another look. "Can't fight at long range? Well that's too bad! At this distance I can hit you with anything I want. You can try and stop me if you like, but I'll just jump out of reach and hit you with my big guns."

"Big guns?" Naruto shouted. "If you had any, I wouldn't be standing here, would I?!"

"I don't plan on wasting moves against the likes of you."

"Oh that's funny, because it seemed like you were getting pretty desperate back there, Mizuki-teme!" Naruto yelled in response. "Haven't you realized yet that I'm good?"

"Ha! Good? Don't make me laugh! You're just a noisy delinquent; the class clown, the village's biggest nuisance and the worst excuse for a shinobi I've ever seen! You're a worthless teenager with no parents! Nobody cares what you do or what you say! Even your mum and dad abandoned you!" The grin he wore on his face showed just how badly he wanted to hit this kid, whether physically or verbally. He then chuckled when he got another bright idea when all he received from the blonde in turn was silence. "Since we're on the subject, do you want to know why everyone in this village hates you?!"

Naruto scrunched his face up in anger, "You know what? I really don't give a shit what you have to say to me! I'm dropping your ass right here and now!"

"Drop me? Beat me? You're a thousand years too early to even face me! Do your worst you little shit!"

"_Man he's annoying,"_ Naruto thought, glancing around and quickly taking stock of his surroundings, _"Enough with this beating around the bush bullshit. Time to hit back."_ And hard. As much as he wanted to play around with the Chunin the jinchuriki just wanted to get this stupid battle over with before something bad happened; but how and with what? That was the question.

What did he have in his arsenal that he could throw at this guy?

He had his gauntlet and ammunition. That always came in handy. He contemplated firing pellets at his target to stun him and try to get in close, but the Chunin appeared to be on the lookout for his tricks, as seen by how he was able to shoot down his firework pellet from before, even though he didn't know what it was. Mizuki wanted to settle this thing at long range, which also explained why he moved to the distance he was now at and was holding the centerfield. This pretty much ruled out anything involving trying to get around, blindside his opponent or steadily pour on the small stuff.

Naruto concluded that he needed to get the guy with something big, but also something he wouldn't expect. Something he couldn't see.

He had his _Jet Hand_. But this was useless without something to touch, plus he was concealed behind a large tree, which he couldn't really use let alone move unl-

Naruto stopped when his hand felt up against the bark of the trunk he was hiding behind and looked up. From his spot, the jinchuriki saw how massive the oak was, from the width of the trunk, to its branches, to how heavy he estimated it to be based on its sheer size. After patting his hand against it several times, a devilish smirk then crossed Naruto's lips and he looked over his shoulder once more toward the Chunin positioned perfectly on the other side of it. _"Oh yeah. This will do nicely."_

"Take this you pest!" Mizuki exclaimed, finishing with a Tiger seal before breathing in deeply, _**"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!"**_ He then exhaled, spewing a torrent of fire that quickly formed a ball and began tearing across the ground towards the tree, intent on incinerating it.

Grinning at the opportunity presented, Naruto leapt off of the side of his cover, turned to face it, and brought his right hand back. "HEY MIZUKI! CATCH!" the blonde shouted before slapping his hand against the trunk.

Almost instantly, a blast of wind rocketed off of the side of the trunk from where Naruto touched it, the winds tearing up the ground and kicking up dust while the user leapt safely away. Seconds later, the large oak was ripped right out of the ground by its roots and propelled straight into Mizuki's incoming fire ball.

Because of the sheer size of the tree, its density, the speed it was traveling at, and the fact that it also had a wind release technique propelling it, meant that when the enormous projectile collided with the even smaller fireball, it literally obliterated it before continuing straight for the Chunin who had just finished feeding chakra into his own attack.

Upon seeing his fireball get smashed by a flying tree, Mizuki's eyes bugged out of their sockets.

Dodging an ordinary throwing knife was one thing, but dodging a full-grown oak traveling at the exact same speed as a shuriken was another.

The man threw his arms up to guard and let out a girlish shriek of terror, "OH SHIIIIIIIIT!" Unable to move in time, the tree smashed into the Chunin and sent both of them straight into the woods.

The oak tore through the forest a good two-hundred meters before ending with a good portion of the woods surrounding the clearing brought down and the land ripped asunder in the wake of the terrifying cataclysm. When the dust settled, Naruto proceeded to stroll across the clearing toward the crash site, picking up the _Scroll of Seals_ that had been knocked aside and humming a pleasant tune along the way. When he finally arrived at the scene seconds later, he saw that the oak he had thrown and several other trees had been mashed together, and that Mizuki had been knocked aside in the twisting, vortex of chaos.

Not only was he knocked out from the way he was mumbling incoherently, but his uniform was torn up, he was covered in bark, bruises and cuts, had blood dripping down his head, a busted leg, a mangled arm, and judging from the stench of urine in the air, the man had also wet himself.

Naruto laughed at the sight pitiful, "Wow. That worked better than I was hoping it I can call this fight a big win for me." A smile pulled across his lips before he looked down at the _Scroll of Seals_ safely under his arms.

It was a really big scroll. Definitely something you would notice sitting in an office or a vault room.

Assuming that the entire length of paper contained explicit details on countless ninjutsu and techniques of a malicious nature, it made sense that somebody like Mizuki would want to get his hands on it to use for himself. There was no telling what kind of frightening and dangerous jutsu were contained within its chapters.

So, being the curious cat that he was, Naruto peeled it open to take a peek. Scanning over the opening section, the blonde blinked at the first jutsu that popped up, _"Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu?"_

Reading the information on the technique and the hand seal specified, the scroll said that it was a jutsu that allowed the user to create multiple, solid copies of himself by splitting his chakra evenly between each copy. It also said it was dangerous for a fact that it could potentially kill the user if they didn't have enough chakra, which had Naruto rolling his eyes at. There was a whole bunch of other stuff too about shared learning experience, using it to confuse the enemies, tactical advantages, each clone being able to act independently and all that noise; all in all it was a pretty impressive technique.

In fact, Naruto was really tempted to learn it, feeling that this was probably the jutsu that could make up for his inability to produce a regular clone through the _Bunshin no Jutsu_.

He rolled the scroll up a second later and shrugged.

"Meh, I'll try it out another time. I'm pretty happy with just using my _Jet Hand_ for now. Maybe I can mix it in with my other techniques and create some new combinations with it," he exclaimed while looking down at his hand and flexing it. Giving an affirmative nod, he then turned back to his previous issue lying across the trench in the ground and scratched his head. "So… what do I do with this piece of garbage?"

OOO

**The next morning…**

Naruto let out a very tired yawn that pretty much killed the silence of his classroom and drew a lot of attention from the surrounding students to him. The sheer volume of his exhausted call indicated how sleep-deprived he was, which had a lot of people scratching their heads over what could have happened last night that had him in such a state of exhaustion.

The jinchuriki however was not interested in telling anyone about the details. After he and Tayuya had managed to bag both Mizuki and his accomplices following the attempted theft of the _Scroll of Seals_, they then dragged all four perpetrators to the Hokage's office, dumped them right on the carpet, and informed Hiruzen of everything that had happened. The elder was indeed pleased to have the scroll back in his possession and even more so when he reviewed the kids' handiwork on the people responsible for the incident at the village's main entrance.

Having to put out a massive fire started by a bucket-load of explosive tags was not an easy thing to clean up.

Upon hearing their reports and everything they knew of the situation for himself, the Hokage congratulated them for a job well done and ordered all four collaborators to be processed. After this attempted breakout, he made sure to have the three kunoichi filed quickly and to be sent off to one of their other facilities outside of the village. Mizuki on the other hand would face questioning from Ibiki and serious punishment for his actions, before being sent off to prison.

It had been one hell of a night that Naruto and Tayuya both slept soundly over. But even with all their success…

"_I still wasn't able to get any study-time in, damn it!"_ Naruto thought, glaring towards the front of the classroom with tired eyes.

As frustrated as he was, he couldn't help it. Whatever happened happened, and even though he wasn't able to catch up on any of his work from over the year, he was still able to fly through the written exam, and perform both of the jutsu required for him to graduate. With the _Bunshin no Jutsu _exam in full swing and Iruka calling up students one at a time to the classroom next door, this left Naruto waiting with baited breath for his results to be delivered.

Within minutes of the beginning of the _Bunshin _trials, Naruto was soon the only one left sitting in the room. He slumped over his desk exhaustedly and continued to wait. After all, he promised Iruka that he would.

Just as it seemed like he was going to be left out of the grand finale _and_ the graduation ceremony, the opening and closing of the classroom door at the bottom of the stands caught Naruto's attention. Roused from his state of semi-consciousness, the boy looked up to see Iruka making his entrance to the room. The Chunin, wearing his usual stare of indifference, took to the stairs and approached Naruto's row, where he then moved into the one in front before coming to stand before the jinchuriki.

Naruto blinked when he met the serious scowl of his teacher.

"S-Sensei?"

Oh God. Did he fail? Was this firm expression on his instructor's face an indication that he had failed all of his exams? The man wasn't carrying any extra headbands, papers, awards or trophies with him, only his clipboard. A feeling of dread quickly began to well up inside Naruto when he received no response from the scarred Chunin, and rested his head in his hands in shock.

"Oh no…"

"Naruto," Iruka spoke up suddenly, catching the child's attention again. When the jinchuriki's eyes locked onto him, the instructor smiled. "Close your eyes."

Curious, the boy did as he was asked. He felt the pressure around his head from his goggles removed and replaced by something else, something that lacked the elasticity of the eyewear's bands, the discomfort from its lens pieces and the familiarity of its placement. Once Iruka had finished doing whatever it was he had set out to do, the man stepped back and grinned.

"Now go ahead and open them."

When Naruto did, the boy gazed up at his teacher in surprise when he saw the man was no longer wearing his headband. With his goggles dangling from his teacher's hand, the Chunin nodded happily to the jinchuriki when he quickly realized what must have happened.

"Congratulations. You graduate."

Suddenly, Naruto seemed to forget how tired he really was.

A new light unexpectedly filled the room when, without warning, Iruka was tackled by his student leaping over his desk to hug him. It happened so fast and so suddenly that the instructor had no idea if it was the glare of the sun from outside or the smile on his student's face that blinded him.

Either way, it was a bright day for both of them…

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

* * *

**Author's Note:** Wow. That took a while. But at least I was able to esstablish Naruto and Tayuya's current relationship and living conditions, as well as set up the series to follow how it would have started in this scenario.

I also think it's the perfect first test of Naruto and Tayuya's abilities: three kunoichi with rusty skills and one pussy of a Chunin that wouldn't stop running his mouth. But don't go thinking this is the last you will see of the kunoichi. The fun is only just started.

I've already written up to the Chunin Exams, but I'm just writing ahead to see how well the story pans out. I'm looking forward to writing the rest. :)

Hope you all enjoyed it.


	7. Team Up

**NARUTO**

**Drifting**

_Team Up_

From what Naruto could recall from the many hours leading up to his current predicament, he could say without a shadow of a doubt that it had been one of the greatest days of his life. His past three years of education in the academy, accompanied by great trials, errors and adventures inside and outside of the walls of _Konohagakure_, had all led him to this single moment.

The moment he realized the headband had been placed around his crown and had been tied by his incredibly pleased teacher was like almost every single one of his dreams coming true all at once. It was a memory and experience he would not soon forget and probably never will.

Thankfully Iruka had been there to calm him down from his emotional high and after getting him to stop jumping off of walls, reminded him that he still had a fair ways to go. Being the sensible character that he was, it took several deep breaths and a small talking to quell the boy's excitement. Everything after that was just a running blur.

Following the closing ceremony was a quick hop and skip to his personal training field to spend time with Tayuya, who had also gotten her headband from Anko in their own private ceremony. Working up a sweat and burning off their excitement from a fantabulous day of non-stop good news, they then headed off for a celebratory soiree over at the _Ichiraku Ramen_ stand.

It had been a wicked evening for all of them. But what came after that came as a bit of a puzzle to young Naruto.

The jinchuriki last remembered falling asleep, exhausted from all the bounding around and partying he'd been doing all afternoon. For all he knew, he should have been in bed.

Why the heck was he standing on a shallow pool of perfectly reflecting water inside a massive sewer? Looking around in confusion, the blonde decided to explore this dark new environment and began following the tunnel to wherever it led.

In all his life Naruto had never seen a sewer system like this before. Not even the pipelines underneath the village were this huge and he'd been around all of them. It was a no-holds-barred life for a master prankster; he needed to be prepared to get his hands dirty in all senses of the word.

Still, this new, underground world perplexed him beyond belief. It didn't smell, it was quite clean and the water seemed pretty good… not that he wanted to drink it or anything. God no. The only depressing features inside this place were the poor lighting and the soulless walls of concrete surrounding him that didn't have any windows or ducts to provide any kind of filtration. It also didn't allow any natural radiance from the outside world.

"Someone should really think about sticking some fluorescent lights in here. It'll do wonders for this place," Naruto commented to himself, pointing towards the ceiling observantly before arriving at a sudden and unexpected blockage.

It wasn't an ordinary blockage either; it was a God damn massive set of iron gates standing in his way with an odd seal slapped over the lock-whoa… several stories up. Naruto shook his head once at the sight of the barrier and looked it over, wondering why someone would build something like this down here in a tunnel.

Curious, he walked closer and tried to peer into the darkness beyond the gates. The tunnel led into some sort of large chamber, but it was so dark inside he couldn't see a damn thing past the bars. Naturally the mystery of the gate and the room beyond beckoned the child forward, only to stop when he heard a low rumble followed by a booming, demonic voice.

"_**I was wondering when you were going to drop by."**_

Naruto blinked and looked up. The moment he did, he saw a pair of blood red eyes suddenly open up in the darkness and instantly lock onto him. Caught a little by surprise, the boy skittered back till he was able to get a good view of the pair of irises and the entity that they were attached to. The moment he put space between himself and the iron gates, light suddenly poured into the chamber and the prone form of a gargantuan orange fox emerged from the shadows.

The giant animal grunted drearily at the sight of his container, _**"Not too impressive considering you're still just a child, but certainly a change from my last two cells."**_

With the illumination provided for him, Naruto was able to see that the fox was about several times larger than a building. By his estimate… it was fucking enormous. A huge maw with rows of sharp, pointed canine teeth, with black around its eyes, huge arms folded in front of it where it was resting its head on and, if his eyes didn't deceive him, nine massive tails swishing about behind it. The sight was both jaw-dropping and a little bit terrifying, but Naruto wasn't scared one bit.

Instead of jumping in shock at the gigantic animal glaring down at him through the gates, Naruto merely smiled and pointed up at him.

"Cat!"

He saw the massive animal's orange fur bristle and expression visibly change to one of outrage, _**"I'M NOT A GOD DAMN CAT YOU BRAINDEAD FOOL!"**_

Naruto's clothes ruffled on the wind that came from the colossal beast shouting at him. Blinking after its outburst, the blonde beamed and raised an eyebrow, "You've got whiskers. Cats have whiskers. If you're not a cat then what are you?" Duh, a fox. But what the hell kind of fox had a head the size of one of the _Hokage Monument_ faces and a body to match its canvas?

The animal grounded its teeth as it glared irritably down at the boy, _**"Are you honestly this stupid? Do you know who I am?"**_

Naruto shrugged. "Nope."

Wanting to slap himself in the face, the monster growled and fixed its best death glare on the kid staring cheerfully up at him. _**"I'm the great Kyuubi no Yoko, or what the people of your village like to call the Kyuubi or Demon Fox. Call me whatever you like."**_

"Oh," Naruto simply murmured, tilting his head as he got a better look at the gigantic creature, who continued to glare down at him impatiently.

So this was the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox; the same being that attacked his village all those years ago. Hm.

…

…

…

Hey… wait a minute!

Blinking and looking around, Naruto then quickly glanced back at the enormous beast with a questioning gaze, "How the heck am I talking to the Kyuubi? Where the heck am I?"

The fox growled to himself, _**"You really are a stupid one. We're inside your head."**_

"Inside… my head- ooohhh, wait. Now I get it," Naruto laughed and snapped his fingers, tapping his temple a few times before pointing back at the cage, "This whole thing is a dream. Yeah! That's it! It's just a really, really, REALLY bad dream. Damn. It must have been that omelet jiji put into the last bowl of ramen I had today. Man. I tell yah, that egg just didn't taste right. Uh-uh. I remember falling asleep and…" He babbled on.

As he listened in to the ramblings of the blonde standing underneath the veil of his shadow, the Kyuubi simply could not believe that his current container and jailer, the one he was sealed into by the Fourth Hokage himself, could be this dull witted. This complete ignorance and lack of understanding of his current situation could only be attributed to a couple of plausible things; either irreparable brain damage from being hit over the head one too many times or being terribly uninformed. Damn villagers.

Either way, of all the Uzumakis he'd encountered in his entire life and of all the remaining ones in the world, he had to be sealed into the most airheaded one.

Life was just one cruel, sick joke.

As Naruto drawled on, the fox groaned in annoyance before, after several minutes of nothing but drone noise, snapped, _**"Shut your mouth you pathetic human!"**_ Stopping immediately on command, the jinchuriki looked back up at the demon in surprise. _**"Weak. Blind. Ignorant. You want to know the truth? I'll be more than happy to tell you. Just so that you understand the situation, yes; you are asleep. But this isn't some fairytale wonderland that your mind managed to concoct all on its own. No. This is real. Where we are… right now… we're inside your subconscious, inside your mind and body."**_ He saw the kid blink in a deadpanned fashion, getting his scowl to tighten. _**"Hmph… figure it out for yourself."**_

Looking around a second time, Naruto wheeled back around and began pointing between himself, the fox, and then the chamber they were currently inside. "Okay. So… what you're saying is… we… _you_ and _I_… we're inside my mind? Inside me. This…" He pointed around the tacky basement boiler room, "This place… _all_ of this is inside my subconscious?" Nothing but silence emanated off of the large fox as its tails swished behind him impatiently. Blinking a few more times, Naruto thought on the new information for a little bit longer until his eyes widened to that of saucers and he pointed in disbelief at the entity once more, "No way… are you…?"

The fox grunted, _**"Have you finally caught up?"**_

"Whoa," Naruto breathed, staggering back while slapping the side of his head.

Shit. Now it all made sense. At the exact moment the penny dropped, the metaphorical projector inside his cranium started to play.

Everything in his young life leading up to this point, the villagers' unpleasantness towards him, the glares, the whispering behind his back, the segregation, the discontent at his presence, the loneliness… all of it started to come back to him all at once in one whopping big eye opener. With all of his memories from his earlier days being processed at light speed, Naruto was simply overwhelmed in a sea of information, revelations, and emotions.

It was then, after several moments of mind-numbing contemplation and close to collapsing at the full realization of his position, the boy then remembered the gate and its lock and looked straight up at it in alarm. Stumbling forward, he then lifted up his stomach, where he could see the tattoo he knew that he had there as clear as day. "So this is…" He turned his attention to the fox and pointed at his naval, "You're in here, aren't you? This is what this weird seal is for! It's for you!"

The fox growled unpleasantly, _**"That's a powerful fuinjutsu unlike any other. It's not some stupid summoning formula like you thought it was when you first laid eyes on it and tried to open it."**_ Naruto blushed when he remembered that particular incident, yet remained quiet._** "That seal across your stomach is what keeps me inside of your body and behind these bars, locked away from the rest of the world. It's a tight fit yes and it's a miserable place to be, but at least it beats my previous prison where I was bound and crucified on a ball of chakra suspended in a bottomless void."**_

Lowering his jacket, Naruto returned his arms to his sides and looked up at the fox strangely. "So… then… if you're sealed inside me… then that makes me _your_ jinchuriki, doesn't it?"

"_**Yes…"**_

Falling silent for a bit, Naruto clicked his tongue, "Is this permanent?"

"_**If you want to continue living, yes,"**_ the fox replied, being graciously honest for the boy's benefit for once.

The blonde then frowned, "And this whole being brought into my subconscious-thing," He pointed around the room again, "What does this mean?"

"_**It just means that your mind tends to wander into places that you just don't expect it to,"**_ the Kyuubi said, a small smirk of anticipation growing on his face. _**"Oh, but this intrigues me greatly. You were able to enter this level of your subconscious without prior knowledge of any of this; information that both the Hokage and your entire village worked so hard to keep hidden from you. I wouldn't be surprised if you were to suddenly become upset over all of this secrecy, especially since it explains why you're hated so…"**_

Oh this was rich. What a perfect opportunity for some influence. If he could get this kid to throw a fit and rampage on the lowly mortals of his hometown, then maybe he could get some additional entertainment out of this boring world, and perhaps, if he was lucky…

"Meh," Naruto suddenly interrupted the fox's thoughts with a shrug, "It's no big deal."

The Kyuubi's jaw visibly dropped. _**"What?"**_

The blonde picked at his ear and flicked the wax off of his finger, "I'm sure Hokage-jiji had a good reason for not telling me. Maybe it was for my own good, to protect me or something, I don't know. If he didn't tell me, then he didn't tell me, so I'm not fussed."

Sure it was a pragmatic response, but what good would him throwing a tantrum in the middle of a sewer in his own mind do? He could beat up the walls and kick at the water, but all that would do was give him a pair of bloody knuckles and wet pants. It wouldn't solve anything in the long run.

The fox growled, _**"How can you take this so much in stride?"**_

"The old man said to me ages ago that he was going to tell me about the seal on my stomach eventually, so what's wrong with finding out earlier ahead of time?" Dropping his hands back down, Naruto smiled up at the blank stare of the demon and tilted his head. "It sure as hell answers a lot of questions though. Now I know why all of the adults are so skittish around me."

Eyebrow raising a bit, the Kyuubi then gave the boy a puzzled stare. _**"So you're not upset?"**_

"Not a bit," Naruto shook his head, "Why would I be upset? Do you know how terrible being upset feels; it's bloody awful." He shrugged his shoulders slightly and breathed out a sigh, "Sure I can get upset, but I feel more liberated than anything else. Now that I know the truth about why people stay away from me… well… it feels pretty damn good. Nice doing business with you."

Oh sure, he was just hit with the biggest news of his generation and all he could do was smile and shrug it off like it didn't matter.

Was this normal? Probably not. Either he was suppressing his real emotions right down to the core or he had expected this the entire time and was honestly not surprised. Whatever the case, the young jinchuriki was doing exceedingly well in holding it all together.

It certainly had the Kyuubi's head in a spin.

After staring at the kid for a little while longer, the nine-tailed fox then frowned and lowered his head back onto his arms. _**"You really are a stupid fool."**_

"Hey. I act stupid because it's fun. I hate being ordinary like everybody else. Ordinary is boring," Naruto replied. He gazed curiously up at the demon, "Anyway, you seem like a nice enough guy so I'll keep in touch."

"_**Hmm? What do you mean?"**_

"_This_," Naruto said, gesturing around the room and then between them. "Since I'm stuck with you I may as well get to know you, right? I think I'm going to enjoy our time together if we're planning on doing this on a regular basis."

The boy's approach regarding him had the Kyuubi's frown deepen. _**"Don't make light of my strength boy. You're only deluding yourself if you think I will allow you treat me like some common house pet. I'm the nine-tailed demon fox; a living mass of malevolence and the most feared of all the biju. There's no way a powerful entity like me will be swayed by the likes of you."**_

Naruto giggled and saluted, "It's worth a shot though, right? I'll get you to see how awesome I am soon enough, big guy." He then turned around and began walking away, waving over his shoulder at the fox. "Well, I guess I'll see you when I see you… uhh…" Stopping on the water, the jinchuriki then looked back at the kitsune still sitting behind his gate. "Hey. What's your name?"

"_**I just told you, the Kyuubi no-"**_

"No, no, I meant your _actual_ name. I'd hate to have to call you nine-tails all the time. It's kind of strange," Naruto said while rotating fully, where he saw a momentary look of surprise come across the demon's face before the fox turned away sharply. "Come on. Don't be like that…"

"_**Forget it,"**_ the Kyuubi snapped, closing his eyes.

Huffing, Naruto smiled and turned to stare back ahead of him, "Alright, if that's how you feel. It was nice meeting you, fur ball."

He heard the fox growl in response, which brought a wider grin to the boy's face.

Man… he couldn't wait for the next time he came here. Having someone else to talk to and get to know was a really refreshing change of pace, even if it was a colossal demon fox. Still, even with this mind-blowing discovery the boy felt that it was probably best not to go around telling everybody about it. That would just mean more trouble for him than he could handle, and he knew how to handle trouble. It's been his way of life since the very start.

Naruto opted to keep the information in a tight circle… and go to Hokage-jiji to ask him more about it later on.

The demon fox, the very being that attacked Konoha all those years ago, was sealed inside of him. No way was that not important…

OOO

Waking with a start, Naruto blinked away the spots from sitting up too quickly and stared through the darkness in awe. Looking around a few times and towards his bedroom window, the blonde then heard a low murmur and looked down to the bed beside him to see Tayuya sit up.

Clearly showing the signs of being woken up prematurely, the red haired musician blinked as her eyes were filled with the night sky outside the window beside her before looking up at the upright Naruto. Both taking in the other's haggard appearance, Tayuya reached up to rub her eye slowly before deciding to ask the question that was now bothering her.

"What's with all the noise, shithead? Bad dream?" the musician asked.

Letting out a yawn, Naruto shook his head, "Nah, just an inside body experience. Nothing to worry about."

Tayuya blinked, "Ngh… well… if you need to go to the bathroom, then could you do it a little bit quieter?"

"Sure thing," Naruto mumbled before looking back down at the girl. He then blinked when he remembered the incredibly strange dream he'd just had, "Oh yeah, I just found out that I'm the Kyuubi's jinchuriki."

Tayuya raised an eyebrow, staring at him silently for a moment before looking him up and down. After several seconds of careful study, she then turned to look back at him seriously… or as seriously as a tired girl with bags under her eyes could get in her position, "Really?"

"Yeah."

"No joke?"

"Nope."

"Are you going to grow an extra pair of ears and tails one day?"

"Probably not."

"Am I in danger?"

"Not at all."

"Then go back to sleep," Tayuya groaned, dropping her face down into her pillow to snuggle back into him.

Both she and Naruto had been sharing the same bedroom with each other for the past two years, every night either crashing in the separate beds they'd arranged for themselves or in the same one when they couldn't be bothered falling asleep in their respective areas. If she didn't have anything to worry about back when they first started this whole routine, then she didn't have anything to worry about now.

Even if the bedroom was filled with all sorts of crap like some common college dorm, with pillows, blankets and futons strewn all about the place from their continued desire to create the perfect den and the largest pillow fort ever conceived, it was still _their_ sleeping area. It was more like a bear cave filled with mattresses than anything else and that's how it was between them; complete and absolute trust in one another.

Yawning again at being woken up so suddenly, Naruto slumped back down in the bed alongside his flat mate and the two went back to sleep.

XXX

**The very next morning…**

After waking up real early to get some extra training in before the Genin assignments at the end of the week, Naruto soon found himself trudging back to his apartment covered in all kinds of crap and reeking of sweat brought on from hours of performing backbreaking exercises. He'd practically spent the whole of dawn lugging all sorts of heavy stuff up and down the woodlands as well as pounding the crap out of a variety of inanimate objects ranging from boulders to tree logs, and experimenting with his signature jutsu on the same material. Burning chakra to come up with some new ways to use his _Jet Hand_ in the most imaginative ways possible, contrary to popular belief, actually did make the boy sweat a little, since he was practically forcing himself to change its shape, direction and execution.

The mechanics of the original _Jet Hand_ was simple; aim, slap and shoot the object. What Naruto wanted to do was control the release of his technique and transform it into something more complete; something he could produce, bend and supplement by his own free will and diversify his arsenal.

It was tough work, especially for someone with little to no talent like him, but he wasn't going to be let down by it. Not in the slightest. After all, he'd managed to pull this far through hard work, fighting smart and grit alone. All he needed to do was try a little harder, study up as much as he could on the material he needed, and bite through the storms standing in his way.

Speaking of which, he could use with some rain right about now but because it was a sunny forecast for the next couple of weeks he decided to hit the showers at home and make his own rain.

"A nice… hot… refreshing… shower," Naruto repeated out loud to himself, picking his ear as he ascended the stairs to his apartment. By the time he threw open the front door, shut it behind him and made his way across to the bathroom he was so focused on his intention to clean himself up, SO looking forward to a good scrub down, that he completely forgot about the fact that he wasn't living alone in his apartment anymore and hadn't been for the last two years.

That reality hit him the moment he threw open the door and found himself staring at a wet and naked Tayuya just stepping out of the shower and reaching for a towel. What then occurred was a complete worry free moment of both parties just staring blankly at each other before both their faces turned red and all hell broke loose. Tayuya shrieked and Naruto gave a startled yelp before slamming the door shut just as several dull thuds impacted against it.

"SHITHEAD!"

"I'm sorry, Tayuya-chan!" Naruto shouted desperately. "I had no idea you were in there! I swear!" He then blinked when he recalled the thuds. "And where the hell did you get kunai from? I don't remember keeping any in the bathroom."

"My uniform is in here you dumbass! Or were you so focused in staring at me that you didn't notice?"

Red as a tomato, the blonde sputtered fearfully, "I honestly don't know how to answer that question. Yes?" Kami, he didn't want to die at the hands of his flat mate at the tender age of twelve. His classmates would just laugh at him.

"Hmph. Pervert," Tayuya muttered, managing to cool herself down enough to dismiss the event and continue on with the task of drying herself. Though still flustered, which Naruto picked up through her prickly tone of voice, she was still able to change to a more suitable topic while he was still within earshot. "It's I.D photo day. I wanted to make myself look good before heading over to the administration office to have my picture taken."

Reminded of today's schedule, Naruto smiled over his shoulder while continuing to lean against the door. "Have you given any thought to the pose you want to take? It _is_ a file photo after all, so it's pretty much guaranteed that it's going to be put in your permanent record."

"No, not really. But… now that you mention it, I'm kind of thinking along the lines of a profile shot with a cool smile and my hair blowing in the wind. What about you?"

"War paint," Naruto said without hesitation, bringing his hands up to draw a metaphorical banner headline in front of him, "Tons of it. I want to strike fear and awe into the hearts of my enemies and friends when they start doing research on me; a white glaze with red tribal flames."

Tayuya laughed at this, grunting as she was now in the process of getting dressed. "Wouldn't that take you hours to have done and even more to pull off properly? And secondly, wouldn't that also just scare the living daylights out of everyone, if not make you look like a complete jackass?"

Scratching his head, Naruto reviewed his idea. "Hmm… yeah… perhaps you're right." He scrapped the concept and moved on to Plan B. Being Uzumaki Naruto, it was most likely a given that he had a Plan B. "Okay then, how about this; back turned, hand on goggles and an over-the-shoulder shot with leaves drifting across in the background? That seems pretty badass and with my face I'll definitely be able to pull it off."

"That actually sounds really cool." A click from the door's lock sounded, signaling Naruto to step away and allow Tayuya to come out at her leisure. Dressed in her khaki battle dress with a white musical note stitched to her back, black spandex shorts and sandals, the kunoichi was pretty much all set and ready to go, except for the fact she was still toweling her hair. She also still appeared a little razzed from the earlier incident, if the red in her cheeks and embarrassed scowl was of any indication. "Might take a bit of doing. How are you going to get leaves to float by while you're looking over your shoulder?"

Naruto grinned and placed his hands together in a ram seal. "Easy. By using the new jutsu I recently came up with."

"New jutsu?" Tayuya raised an eyebrow. "You were able to come up with one just this morning."

"Yup."

"Damn, shithead. Are you sure you're not like, super talented or something, because I swear to God you're kind of giving the impression that you are."

"No, I just knuckle down harder than the ordinary person would." Naruto replied, forming a couple more hand seals before ending on the rooster. He then folded his arms and looked off to the side. "Well… what do you think?"

For a full minute the pair just stood in place, watching and waiting in anticipation. After seeing Naruto flip through hand signs and finish, Tayuya immediately knew right then and there that he had just performed his new jutsu and waited expectantly for the results. Initially she wanted to speak out against using it indoors for fear of destroying the apartment should it yield a catastrophic outcome, but after a full minute went by and nothing happened, the redhead looked at the jinchuriki questioningly.

"Well?"

Naruto, smile dropping, looked back at her in confusion. "What's wrong?"

Tayuya looked up and down the corridor they were in before shrugging. "Didn't you just use your new jutsu?"

"Yeah. What? Can't you see it?" Naruto asked, gesturing to himself. "I'm using it right now. Take a good look." He then turned his head to the other side…

…and that's when Tayuya finally noticed.

She more or less felt it before she saw it; a light breeze that had previously been coming in from the direction of the kitchen before suddenly changing directions and starting to blow the other way. At first she thought one of them had left a window open in one of the other rooms or switched on the air-con, but after seeing Naruto rotate his body a few times and feel the direction of the wind change to match the angle of each of his poses, at the same time blowing a few leaves passed them so that they framed the jinchuriki's statuette forms, Tayuya quickly figured out what his new technique was.

The look she wore on her face upon realization was a cross between incredulous and confused. "This is your new jutsu?"

"Uh-huh," Naruto said proudly, his hair and clothes gently ruffled by the light gust as he turned on his heel once again, striking a 'cool guy' pose with his chin propped comfortably in his hand. He gave the girl one of his most dashing grins, which brought on a new shade of scarlet to Tayuya's cheeks when she got a full-blown flash of his handsome visage. "What do you think?"

"You took the concept of the directional changes in your _Jet Hand_ ability and applied it to your entire body so that you could manipulate the airspace of your environment, right?" Tayuya said, earning another nod from the blonde.

"Pretty cool, huh?"

Tayuya grinned and lowered her towel from her hair. "That's awesome. What else can you do with it?"

Blinking a couple of times, Naruto then gave his close friend a sheepish grin and ran his hand through his spiky hair uneasily. "Actually… this is all I can manage right now." He saw the girl give him a deadpanned stare at his answer and struck another pose. "But don't worry! It's a work-in-progress. I call it _**Eiyū no Kaze**__ (Hero's Wind)_; a technique that automatically allows me to bend wind in different directions and make my victory poses look more awesome then what they already are."

And that was it.

Tayuya sweatdropped, "And you gave it a name?" The primary function of the jutsu made no sense to her whatsoever, with the exception of only one thing. She smiled warmly at the blonde and shook her head in amusement. "Geez. Only you'd ever come up with a silly and pointless technique like that."

"Hey! It's not pointless," Naruto replied tersely, turning again so that the wind changed vectors and blew his locks in the opposite direction he was now facing. "Look at how amazing I look. No matter what pose I try the wind changes and moves in the optimal direction to produce the best effect. Can't you see how badass that is?"

This warranted an odd look from the girl when she saw him rotate several more times and the direction of wind change with every adjustment, even once blowing in the direction of her face. While the breeze was cool and pleasant it did spark another question of interest that was really starting to bug her at this point. "How do you get the wind to change every time you move?"

It was an inquiry that had Naruto stop for a moment and contemplate in momentary silence. After several seconds of head scratching, he then gave her a blank stare and shrugged. "I don't know. It just happens." He allowed himself to relax, releasing his hold of the technique so that the winds finally died down.

Tayuya rolled her eyes at the cluelessness of his own creation. "Well, once you figure out how to upgrade your technique from its useless default setting, let me know."

"Will do," Naruto murmured with a salute at she marched passed before pointing toward the lavatory. "Are you done using the bathroom now?"

"I need to wait a bit for my hair to dry off first. Knock yourself out."

"Sweet. Thanks," Naruto chirped, stepping into the washroom for his previously intended shower. Whether be it hot or cold, either way it was going to be a glorious experience after such a tumultuous morning…

OOO

After a quick breakfast, which saw both Naruto and Tayuya making plans for the day and the week ahead of them, the pair soon found themselves standing before the Third Hokage in the _Shinobi Registration Office_ of the Administration Building. With the jinchuriki looking incredibly pleased with himself and his roommate appearing just as cheerful, the pair stood at ease, side-by-side and waited patiently for the village leader to finish reading through the documents they had just handed to him.

It had been pretty smooth sailing for them since leaving the apartment. They'd managed to fill in all the empty spaces in the documents given to them by their teachers and had their photos taken without a fuss. This being their first and possibly only chance to get their profile documentations right, you could say they were more than a little bit excited after seeing the Third lay both sheets down and rest his eyes upon them.

"So? So? Is everything alright, Hokage-jiji?" Naruto asked.

"Did we fill in everything correctly? Because if we didn't we can just redo them," Tayuya also said while raising a hand meekly.

Hiruzen chuckled. "No need to fret you two. All the information you've written down checks out and you've managed to cover all of the essentials. I don't see anything needless or out of place, even in your hobbies and interests." He saw the pair give each other expressions of relief and fist-bumped each other, before picking up one of their sheets. "However, I do have one little query I wish to address with you."

"What's that, oji-san?" Naruto asked.

"How were you able to get leaves to blow passed you in the background?" Hiruzen asked, turning the document around and showing off Naruto's picture, which consisted of him with his back turned and looking over his shoulder with his characteristic grin, and hair blowing in the wind. The lighting of the photo was also well done and the quality was outstanding. "I find it hard to believe that a gust of wind carrying foliage from some nearby trees just happened to hit you the moment the photographer took your picture. Did you set this up?"

Naruto grinned sheepishly while Tayuya gave him a look and smile that said 'you lovable bastard.' "Of course I did. What kind of trickster do you think I am that I wouldn't take advantage of a situation like that?"

The Third turned the document back around and looked at the photo in amusement. "This is a registration form sighting you as a shinobi of a hidden village; not a resume for a production company that requires a cover photo."

"A photo's a photo. Don't question my artistic vision and my imaginative way of thinking, jiji," Naruto said while folding his arms and looking away with a pout. "I worked hard all morning trying to come up with the best cool-guy pose and now everyone has something to say about it. The lighting in a photograph looks so much better when you angle your head properly."

Tayuya giggled at his off-handed response. "Sometimes you try too hard, shithead."

The boy grinned back at her. "I'm known village-wide for trying hard, Tayuya-chan."

"Even going overboard?"

"That too, but I consider it as a sort of charm point. Nothing to be ashamed of."

"In any case," Hiruzen exclaimed while clearing his throat, "You two did well in filling in your forms and handing them to me on time. I assume that you were also given instructions regarding your full Genin transitions from your teachers?" He saw the two of them nod, which brought a smile to his face. "Then I will see the pair of you later. Let me know if there are any problems."

Meeting over, the two newly registered Genin bowed to the old man before taking their leave, each carrying a notable spring in their step and a smile on their face. Their expressions and strides were just another way of saying that they were glad that the whole exam ordeal and registering to become actual shinobi of _Konohagakure_ was now over. From here on out, it was a one way road to becoming the best shinobi they could possibly be, and they were sure looking forward to their very first missions outside of this place.

As they marched their way down the stairs and out of the halls of the Hokage tower, the two kids quickly locked into conversation, with Tayuya starting off by nudging her companion in the side as he brought his hands up behind his head. "Do you still intend to live up to your earlier plans of traveling, shithead?"

"Sure do," Naruto replied with a wide grin. "Once I get a decent batch of missions under my belt, I think I'll hit the road and go visit some of the other villages and see what's up."

Tayuya, smiling warmly at the boy, saddled up to him and bumped her head against his shoulder playfully. "Mind if I tag along when you decide to go on your little adventure across the continent?"

Naruto nodded brightly, "Of course. I'd love for you to come along, Tayuya-chan." He then grinned mischievously in her direction and nudged the red head in the side. "But I warn you, it's going to be a long and dangerous journey."

"Ha! Danger, shithead?" Tayuya cackled while giving him her own devious grin. "_I_ _am_ the danger! I'll follow you wherever you go… every step of the way."

"Well then Ms Danger, you're going to have to tread real carefully from now on. The road I walk might get a little bit bumpy along the-OOF!" Before he could finish, Naruto was unexpectedly interrupted by something small and fast moving head butting him in the gut. He nearly fell back onto the stairs he and Tayuya were just about to step off, but was able to keep his balance and glare down at the culprit. "Damn it! What the hell?"

It felt like a cannonball had tried to take him out, but was actually just a kid wearing a helmet who had accidentally ran into the jinchuriki while attempting to charge up the stairs. He ended up bowling himself over as a result. Now the boy was sitting up on the ground and looking around in a bit of a daze, wondering what kind of wall had stopped him.

"Wh-What? What happened?"

"You got knocked on your ass, runt. That's what happened," Tayuya said with a chuckle, looking down at the confused kid with an amused smirk, "Watch where you're going next time, otherwise you might run into an actual wall."

As well as the helmet, the strange boy was also wearing a yellow shirt with the Konoha symbol on it, a long blue scarf, and grey shorts. His bewildered gaze eventually fell onto the pair standing in front of him, to which the adolescent then jabbed a finger up at Naruto accusingly, "You! YOU!"

"YES! ME!" Naruto shouted back, looking around at the odd looks he was getting from nearby shinobi wandering the tower's ground floor before glancing at Tayuya. "WHY ARE WE SHOUTING?!" The redhead winced at the volume in his voice and picked at her ear. "Oh… sorry."

"Assassin! Agent of the Hokage! His most trusted guard!" the little boy yelled again and leapt to his feet, taking a superior stand against the pair of now even more confused looking Genin. It was kind of hard to be intimidating when you were about half the height of the people you were threatening. "Gramps knew that I was coming for him and sent two of his top agents to stop me! Well! You may have successfully blocked my path, but know that I will not be deterred so easily!" The boy then pulled out a shuriken from his pocket and held it at them as if brandishing a knife. "Now let me through or I will cut you down like the-"

"Oh please!" Naruto rolled his eyes and snatched the metal star out of the boy's hand. He then tossed it out the nearest window and began walking away, quickly followed by a thoroughly amused Tayuya. "And here I thought _I_ was full of it."

"You _are_ full of it, Naruto-kun. That's why everybody loves you so much," his red haired friend laughed, walking on even as they were being stared after by their flabbergasted 'attacker'.

"I am quite the charmer, aren't I?"

"Yes. And that, right there, proves my point," Tayuya replied, jabbing him in the shoulder blade, "Hotshot."

"HEY!" the boy shouted, stopping the pair in their tracks and catching Naruto's attention. "Do you have any idea who I am?"

"No." Tayuya replied flatly. "Should we?"

"I'm the Hokage's grandson!" the boy pointed at them. "Apologize to me!"

Blinking in surprise at the revelation of his identity, both Naruto and Tayuya looked at each other before glancing back at the kid.

So… this runt with the cheap headgear and missing a tooth was the great village leader's honorable grandson, the one they'd heard tossed about on several occasions. Sure they'd picked up that the Third had relatives hiding inside of the village somewhere, but the pair had not seen any of them, so placing a face to a face and a name to a name wouldn't have struck with them without the relative actually identifying themselves.

This didn't make them shoddy detectives. Oh no. It just meant that they were a bit outside of the loop or didn't care that much.

Naruto smiled. "No can do."

The boy's jaw dropped, "What?!"

"If you want an apology from me, you'll have to earn it," Naruto simply said and, with a wave over his shoulder, began to head off with Tayuya in tow. "From the way you were just shouting at us and acting so rudely, I just don't feel like giving you one right now."

The pair soon left the tower, leaving a stunned Konohamaru behind. He stared after the pair for several moments, just wondering what the hell just went on between him and them.

Did they just shrug him off after knocking him over?

Nobody did that, not even the ninja instructed to look after him. Every person he'd run into in the village always addressed him with respect and whenever he had an accident, there was always someone there to help him and ask if he was okay. After having this happen to him over a thousand times already with people also apologizing for causing him some small form of grief, it was kind of a new experience for him that someone would just walk into him, knock him over, and not even bother addressing him with any kind of esteem whatsoever.

Replaying the scene in his head several more times, Konohamaru then frowned and, with his mind made up, ran after them._ "No one treats me like that! Those two aren't getting off that easily!"_

He wanted to find out who they were and make them pay for looking down on him.

OOO

"How else are you going to improve your _Jet Hand_ ability, shithead? Make it more powerful?" Tayuya asked her companion as they strolled down the street towards their favorite ramen shop for a celebratory meal.

Naruto scratched his chin in thought and looked over at her. "I've considered it, but being the strongest shinobi isn't just about coming up with the biggest landscape reducing fart that can be seen for miles around. No. Real shinobi use attacks with more subtlety to them."

The musician giggled at that response. "Funny, I never pegged you for the subtle type."

"Have you seen my journal? Or better yet, have you seen my pinup wall?" She probably has, considering they've been sharing the same room for the past two years. "Every single one of the pranks I've executed inside of this village has been done through careful planning and near perfect stealth. You can't get any more subtle than that."

"Yeah, and standing on a nearby rooftop shouting at the top of my lungs 'I did it' immediately after the punch line says ninja right there."

"Hey. Somebody's gotta take the blame," Naruto shrugged. "Besides, I _live_ for the fallout, Tayuya-chan. I bask in the glorious admiration of my fans and accept their praises with open arms. It's what makes me more hardcore than anyone else in this place and I'm damn proud of it."

Tayuya rolled her eyes and shook her head in amusement. "I'm really looking forward to the day you become the most wanted man in the world. You'll be laughing and dancing down streets everywhere you go."

"Oh yeah? And where will you be?"

"Behind you, taking photographs while watching you make an ass of yourself," the girl laughed, also earning one from her friend when they finally arrived at the square where _Ichiraku's Ramen_ stood proudly in sight. The pair felt their stomachs growl in anticipation of a good meal. "Man, it's been a while."

"First round's on me," Naruto stated, thumbing his chest. "We're officially Genin now. Time to celebrate." It was a proposal that neither one of them could refuse.

However, just as they were about to wander over to the bar for a good spot of lunch, a disturbance in the air stopped Naruto in his tracks and his feet sifted uneasily when he extended his senses outwards. Tayuya looked back in surprise when she saw her roommate pause, but was quick to determine what was troubling him from his eyes glancing over his shoulder.

"A tail?" Tayuya asked seriously.

"Yeah. We've had one for a while now," Naruto replied before smiling across at the redhead. "Want to see what's up?"

"Sure. Sounds like fun," the musician grinned.

Slapping his hands together, a huge cloud of white smoke suddenly exploded around the pair and, thanks to Naruto's habit of going a bit overboard, filled up the entire street. Villagers hacked when the enormous wall of fumes hit them and covered the whole area, preventing anyone from moving or doing anything until the plume lifted, leaving behind an utterly bewildered crowd.

In the midst of the chaos, both Naruto and Tayuya had vanished from sight, leaving the person who had been following them utterly baffled.

"W-Where… did they go?" Konohamaru asked from safe inside his impenetrable, protective fortress, or in layman's terms, the cardboard box painted to match the color of a rock he was using as a disguise. After managing to hack away the white smoke that had seeped in through the holes, he tried to fix his metaphorical crosshairs back onto his targets, only to find them gone. This had him sweating bullets and looking around wearily, wondering where the heck they could have gotten too.

It wasn't that big of a mystery. With only two eyeholes poked into the side of the box, this left plenty of blind spots to be exploited. It was an opportunity Naruto and Tayuya capitalized on. Using the massive smoke screen as cover, the pair had simply strolled around and stopped on either side of the suspicious looking box sitting just outside of the alleyway. They then stood with their hands on their hips glaring down at the item and tapping their feet impatiently.

"What the heck is this?" Naruto asked, mostly to himself.

"I believe this is what they call a 'disguise', shithead," Tayuya said, kicking the side of the box a couple of times, which scuttled away a bit and ended up walking into the jinchuriki's leg.

"If it's a disguise then it's a pretty shitty one," the blonde said straight out with a tick in his expression. "Hey! Dumbass wearing the box! Rocks aren't square!"

Hearing the voice, the 'rock' abruptly turned to face him. Realizing it had been found out the box was eventually thrown off to reveal the kid that he and Tayuya had bumped into at the Hokage tower. The flustered youngster glared angrily up at the jinchuriki as he smirked at the now identified tagalong.

"Why were you following us?" Naruto asked, folding his arms.

"A-ha!" the boy suddenly shouted again, startling the two teens. "I was right all along! You two _are_ secret agents of the Hokage. Being able to see through my disguise so easily is proof of that?"

"You're wearing a cardboard box, painted to look like a rock, sitting on the side of the road, with two eyeholes poked into the front," Tayuya read in a robotic voice before scowling at the brat when he turned to face her. "In what universe is that an effective disguise and second of all, why in the world did you think it would work?"

"Simple! It blends into the environment!" the boy declared.

The post-graduate Genin deadpanned. "No it doesn't," Naruto and Tayuya said at the same time.

"Well… it could use with some adjustments," the boy mumbled, shoving his hands into his pockets and kicking at the ground in a dejected manner. After a few seconds of silence passed, he eventually kicked up his resolve again and pointed accusingly up at the blonde standing in front of him. "Anyway, I'm not here to play games! I'm here for _you_!"

"Me?" What on earth could this bratty kid want with him? "Why?"

"Simple! You caught me trying to sneak up to my grandfather's office and stopped me from completing a very important mission! You disarmed me with no effort whatsoever and looked down at me like I was nothing." Normally this would have sparked outrage, but contrary to theory, a smirk came upon the young boy mouthing off at the jinchuriki. "That means you're strong."

Naruto blinked. "Umm… okay. Sure. I'm strong." He shrugged. "But what does that have to do with you following us?"

The kid grinned. "I've decided that I want you to train me, boss!"

A momentary silence drifted over the area, but when it eventually passed and the two Genin were able to fully process his response, Tayuya snorted back laughter and Naruto nearly face-faulted. "What? Who decided this? Why the heck would I want to train you? And what's with the 'boss' thing? Why'd you call me that?"

"I called you boss because you're going to be training me, and I've decided on you because you look strong," the boy stated with a grin. "You're the first person who didn't refer to me as 'Honorable Grandson,' and what's more, you didn't apologize to me back there when you knocked me over. That puts you up a notch in my book."

Tayuya giggled hysterically, holding her sides as she looked down at the kid smiling up at Naruto as if he were his idol. "Oh, this is gold."

Blushing at his friend laughing her ass off at his expense, Naruto glared down at the kid to see him still gazing up at him hopefully. "That's real nice and all, kid, but first of all, I don't even know your name. It'll be kind of hard training you if I don't know what to call you."

"My name is Konohamaru Sarutobi," the boy identified, but then looked down at his feet with a solemn gaze. "Well… I'm supposed to be called Konohamaru, but everyone just calls me 'Honorable Grandson.' My name is easy enough to remember, but people only see me as the grandson of the Third Hokage. Nobody ever calls me by my name or looks at me for being me… only for what my grandfather is."

Naruto frowned a little and glanced across at Tayuya, whom he had the exact same expression of seriousness on her face as the two of them thought about what the kid said to them.

It was only natural that people wanted to be recognized, not just for their skills, talents and accomplishments, but as individuals with thoughts and feelings of their own. The people in this world were social animals, always eager to communicate, always eager to show off and always looking for attention. This boy standing before them must have gotten tired of being labeled as something that had been forged by his grandfather and wanted nothing more than to be just a normal kid like all the others.

Naruto understood this. He'd sought acknowledgement as a person and wanted the villagers to recognize his existence and not look away from him when he passed them on the streets. This boy was like him in a way. The only difference between them was that while the kid was starting off from the top, he himself started out life at the bottom of the food chain.

Tayuya also struggled through a lot of her early life after being left alone in the cold with no one to acknowledge or to take care of her. That was until she met Naruto. He pulled her out of the gutter and gave her a new purpose. His kindness instilled a belief in her that she could get more out of life by living for something or for someone, and had since been setting herself numerous goals to reach, giving herself purpose.

For that reason Tayuya smiled up at the jinchuriki and nodded down towards the boy still standing between them and looking at his feet. Acknowledging her gesture, Naruto smirked and looked back at the Hokage's grandson and clicked his fingers to get the youngster to glance up at him.

"Okay then," Naruto answered with a smile, "I'll help you out. Although… I'm not really sure if there's anything I can actually teach you." He scratched his head thoughtfully before folding his arms. "Do you know any of the academy techniques like Henge, Bunshin or Kawarimi?"

Konohamaru shook his head but then smiled when he realized Naruto was going to teach him something.

Seeing his expression brighten had the jinchuriki chuckle. "Good. That means we can start off with something simple." He then laced his fingers together and stretched his arms above his head. After limbering up, Naruto then formed a hand seal that Tayuya had never seen him use before, crossing the two fingers of his left with the fingers of his right, forming a plus sign in front of him. "I think this is a good enough time for me to get some practice with this."

"What the hell kind of sign is that, shithead?" Tayuya asked in surprise. "What are you doing?"

"Something new. You're gonna love it," Naruto smirked before concentrating. _**"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."**_

The area was once again filled with white puffs of smoke bursting up around the trio, signifying the execution of a technique. Konohamaru and Tayuya did well in waving away the excess fumes and when the veil eventually cleared, their jaws dropped when they saw standing around them a swath of Naruto doppelgangers. No joke.

When there had previously been one, there now stood six.

The real one placed his hands on his hips and acknowledged each and every one of the clones as they stretched and got used to their newly created forms. "Awesome… it actually works." He then pointed at them and then down at Konohamaru. "Take him around the village and show him the ropes. I think the Henge is the perfect thing for him to start off with."

"You got it boss," one of the clones saluted before hurrying off along with the others. One stayed behind to pat Konohamaru on the shoulder to get him to snap out of it. When the boy did, he nodded dumbly at his harrier before following after the squad of copies. Soon enough, Naruto and Tayuya were the only ones left in the area.

Letting out a yawn, Naruto grinned at the still gawking red head and waved for her to follow. "Come on, I'm starving. Let's get some ramen already." He was about to head off, but stopped when he saw his friend wasn't budging an inch. "Hey. What's wrong, T-Tayuya-chan?"

The girl pointed at him in amazement. "Since when could you use the _Bunshin no Jutsu_? I thought you flunked that exam." Not only that, but how the hell was he able to make so many.

Realizing her stupor, the jinchuriki gave her a lighthearted chuckle. "Oh that's right. You didn't know I could do that. To be honest I didn't know I could do it myself. That was the first time I used that technique." Naruto smiled at her, "It's called _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_. I got it from the big-ass scroll that Mizuki swiped a couple of nights ago."

"Kage Bunshin?" Tayuya blinked. "That's… really… incredible."

"Yeah. It says that I can create living, breathing, solid copies with the technique and not illusions like with the conventional one," Naruto exclaimed before slipping his hands into his pockets and giving a sly smirk. "Guess that bumps me up a couple more pegs, huh?"

"But… isn't that technique dangerous?" the girl asked, pointing down the road Konohamaru and the entourage of copies had disappeared down. "You got it from the _Scroll of Seals_, right? That makes it a kinjutsu."

"It says it's dangerous because it divides up the chakra of the user evenly between each clone created and it can supposedly kill you if used too many times, since it takes a big chunk out of your reserves," Naruto said but then shrugged. "Honestly though, I'm feeling fine. It didn't take anything out of me and I've still got plenty of energy to spare."

Hearing what it took to execute that technique had the red head stare at the jinchuriki for a good, long while. But after processing the information and seeing that Naruto was still alive and well, shining with the same magnificence he always did, Tayuya then breathed out a sigh and rubbed her eye. She gave the kid an amused smirk. "I forgot that you were a stamina freak. Guess this makes up for your lack of a _Bunshin no Jutsu_, eh?"

"Damn straight." Naruto replied before reaching out and grabbing the girl's hand. Tayuya responded with a light blush and squeezed back when he started pulling her along. "Come on. Let's have lunch."

It was mind-blowing discovery that Naruto waved off so easily. While anyone else would have been left staggered and asking thousands of questions, particularly the nearby villagers who had just been watching, it was no skin off of the jinchuriki's teeth. For some strange reason the jutsu just came naturally to him. He didn't even need that much practice with it and was able to successfully perform it.

Something told him that it was made for him, but that was a discussion for another time.

Though he was certain to test it out more in the future, today he just didn't feel like doing anything else, and simply wanted to hang out with Tayuya and have a good time with her. Plus it was ramen hour; the most important time of the day. There was no way in hell he was skipping it.

"Yo, oji-san!" Naruto exclaimed, taking a seat at the serving desk alongside Tayuya and raising a hand to the chef. "Two miso here!"

"Coming right up, Naruto," Teuchi exclaimed, immediately pulling out two baskets of freshly cooked noodles from the pot and two bowls. The clacking of knives against a chopping board told everyone in the stall that the food was being made right there, which brought smiles to the young customers.

"Would you guys like anything to drink?" Ayame asked, looking between the pair smiling comfortably where they were.

"I'll have some green tea please," Tayuya spoke.

"Same. We'll split a pot."

The waitress giggled as she pulled out a couple of cups and moved to start boiling the water. "You two are in an awfully chipper mood today. Did something good happen?"

"You could say that," Tayuya replied with a shrug.

"We just got through with filling in all our paperwork to become Genin and had our official profile photos taken today," Naruto stated proudly. He grabbed his jacket and adjusted the zipper on it all cool style and grinned up at the manager's daughter across the counter. "You're looking at two new shinobi of _Konohagakure_, Ayame-neechan."

"Wow. Good work you guys," Ayame congratulated, fishing out serviettes while looking between the couple. "I assume team assignments are coming up at the end of the week. Do you think you'll be placed on the same squad together?"

Tayuya took on a bit of a disappointed look and glanced over at her companion. "Probably not. Naruto-kun was a full time academy student from beginning to end, whereas I started half-way through the first year in an apprenticeship. I'm probably going to continue it for the rest of my career as a Genin until I get promoted or, if I'm lucky, I might actually get put into a team myself, but not with any of the students from Naruto's group."

"You'll probably be teamed up with other apprentices then," Ayame stated helpfully, pouring the now boiled water from the steel kettle into the serving jug and sliding it between the two kids. "Your teachers might fashion three of you into a group and sign you up with a new instructor to lead you guys. Konoha has a very efficient way with handling all of its shinobi, so you should have no problems finding your way onto a squad."

"That's good then," Tayuya sighed, giving a smile as she poured herself a cup. "That means I don't have to worry about going the profession track alone."

"Teamwork is very important," Naruto said, propping his head on his hand as his friend filled his cup. "Iruka-sensei drilled that idea into our heads every day for the entire year. You wouldn't believe how many hours he spent talking about how shinobi operated, how the ranking system worked and everything related to the chain of command. Man… I just hope I'm put onto a team I like."

"Damn straight," Tayuya exclaimed. The pair knocked glasses together and sipped, enjoying the third-wheel company of Ayame making sure they had everything they needed before their ramen eventually came to them. Rubbing their hands together eagerly, both the jinchuriki and his red-haired companion pulled up their chopsticks and prepared to dig in. "After being stuck with Anko this whole time, man does it feel liberating to finally get the headband and move on."

"Aww, did you really hate our time together that much, Tayuya-chan?"

The red head froze immediately upon hearing that voice and went ramrod straight. The moment she did, a pair of delicate fingers curled around her cheek and she was pulled into the collar bone of one Mitarashi Anko, who propped her chin on her shoulder and licked her lips sensuously. The appearance of the purple haired kunoichi with the trench coat and fishnet bodysuit had Naruto, who was in the middle of slurping up ramen, choke on his noodles and pound at his chest furiously in shock.

"That's so mean, my little red riding hood," Anko whined, rubbing her cheek against the girl as she mock-played out her heartbreak in the most sickeningly sweet tone she could muster. "You were such an excellent student too. I was going to recommend you to Shikaku to have you drafted into the ANBU course, but after hearing how relieved you were at finally being put onto a team away from me, it just makes me want to cry." A mischievous grin crossed her lips.

Tayuya stiffly looked at the woman resting her head against her and smiled nervously, the corner of her mouth twitching as sweat threatened to break from her forehead. "N-No sensei… it's nothing like that at all. You must have misheard me."

"I did?" Anko gasped, looking the girl in the eyes slyly and making it impossible for her to sit still. "Well, please, enlighten me. Didn't you just say it was liberating to finally get the forehead protector and move on? Is that what you said?"

"W-W-What I meant to say was…" Tayuya stuttered, her eyes darting around and desperately trying to think up the best response she could. God damn it, this was nerve rattling. If she said the wrong thing, this crazy woman was going to send snakes after her again. "Was that… uhh." Gulping, the musician then settled on the only answer she knew would save her life. "I'm… really looking forward to be placed onto a team with _you_ as our instructor… sensei."

She felt like driving a knife through her stomach.

Even Naruto had to admit that took a lot of cojones to say.

Anko, raising her eyebrow at the girl's very nervous response, watched her sweat for the next few seconds before suddenly grinning and wrapping her arms around the timid kunoichi like she was her little sister. "Oh, I'm just messing with you, red. You did well." She patted her on the cap, with Tayuya looking as though she was about to pass out. "Out of all the students I've had under my wing, you were by far the most talented. I couldn't have asked for anyone else."

Laughing nervously, Tayuya took in a few deep breaths to compose herself as she was hugged and showered with loving affection by the eccentric woman. As terrifying as her situation was, she was still able to bring up a normal smile that wasn't forced in any way… probably. "Thank you… Anko-sensei."

"Hey chef! A bowl of miso and two more for the little munchkins here! On me!"

"Three number ones coming up," Teuchi replied pleasantly.

What followed after that was a very loud and boisterous lunch as the three dined away together. The uneasiness that had previously appeared between Anko, Tayuya and Naruto lifted from them around the second serving of ramen, and by the third bowl the trio, including the two newly graduated Genin, could say that they had a great time.

It was a fantastic way to kick off the end of their academy years and celebrate their advancement into shinobihood.

XXX

**A week later…**

As per the usual route, after waking up early that morning to get some additional training in with Tayuya, Naruto soon found himself up in the academy building sitting quietly in his homeroom, middle row, center, alongside dozens of his other fellow graduates. Thanks to all the excitement that had been bottled up inside him all week, the jinchuriki had barely been able to keep still and had sought any and all means of physical exercise in an attempt to put a dampener on his accelerator.

While the events involving Konohamaru did divert his attention for a brief period of time, it was nothing too consequential. He learned later on, through a rather strange phenomenon of memory relapse of his clones dispelling, that his doppelgangers and the kid had gotten into all sorts of trouble that day. Following a little run in with the grandson's guardian Ebisu, Konohamaru then decided he no longer wanted Naruto as a teacher, but as a rival.

They both wanted the throne that was the Hokage's seat, a challenge Naruto gladly accepted.

He was a good kid with a spirit that managed to add even more NOS to Naruto's. The prospect of another challenger in the race to the top revved the jinchuriki and made him even more determined to get stronger.

This explained why he was more cheerful today than usual and had been one of the first to arrive in class that morning to oversee the timely arrival of the others.

Naruto was unable to stop his legs from bouncing along the floor as he looked around at all the familiar faces ready and waiting for the day ahead. While some like Sasuke and Shino passed the time by keeping to themselves and sitting quietly, Choji and Shikamaru kept their persons occupied through conversation, as did many of the other students. It was basically same-old, same-old around the room, which gave the jinchuriki plenty of time to meditate on his own thoughts, unless someone decided to drop by and say hi.

"Let's see," Naruto thought, holding up his fingers and deciding to make a summary for himself, _"Not counting the jutsu I learned in the academy and the material from my personal bag of tricks, I have a total of two: Jet Hand and Shadow Clone Jutsu."_

It was reassuring for him to know that he did in fact have techniques he could fall back on if push came to shove. On their own they packed a hell of a punch, but now it was all a matter of working on them, making them stronger, faster, and coming up with new and creative ideas on how to execute them. The possibilities were endless.

He could think on them now and practice with them later, but all he was doing at this time was cutting down on minutes.

"Hmm… I wonder what Tayuya-chan is doing right now?" Naruto thought aloud to himself, gazing up towards the ceiling in thought. _"She was supposed to meet up with Anko-sensei today. Perhaps some of the Jonin really are going to bring their apprentices together to form a team?"_

If that were the case, Naruto was sure Tayuya would tell him about it at the end of the day. He just needed to be patient and ride through his schedule first.

"Lost in thought?" a voice spoke up beside Naruto, who turned to see Shikamaru Nara standing beside him with his hands in his pockets. The jinchuriki noted the boy was wearing his headband around his arm. "That's new."

"Hey, Shikamaru. Surprised to see you're not taking a nap," Naruto also noted with a smirk. "That's new."

The Nara rolled his shoulder tiredly, "I would like to, but everyone's making so much noise it's impossible to get any shut eye."

"Normally that wouldn't be a problem for you," Naruto said, leaning back in his seat with his hands behind his head. "Maybe you're tense because nobody knows what's actually going to happen with this team assignment thing. I mean… are they going to let us choose what teams we're gonna be on or are the teachers going to decide for us?"

"It's probably going to be the latter," the boy answered, sliding into a seat in the row across from the jinchuriki. "Think about it; if we were given the choice of who we wanted to be on a team with, wouldn't they have mentioned it in the registration forms or at the graduation ceremony?"

Naruto squinted in his usual, fox-like manner and looked ahead of him thoughtfully. "Hmm, yeah. I guess they would have."

"Maybe it'll turn out to be one of those lucky draws from the hat or something," Shikamaru shrugged, before swinging his legs up onto his desk and throwing his hands behind him. "Either way, it doesn't matter to me. I have absolutely no problem with being partnered up with anybody in this class. As long as it doesn't involve a lot of work, then I'm cool with it."

"I sometimes wonder how you even survived the academy," Naruto murmured, staring oddly at the Nara who looked ready to nod out right where he was lying.

Shikamaru yawned in response, "By doing the bare minimum, Naruto. The bare minimum." Typical slacker attitude, just what you'd expect from a master of the art. There were of course several other students in the class that fell under the same character, chief among which included Choji and Naruto himself. But that was all old news that was better left for the books. The main thing was that a lot of them had changed drastically since the days they were kids and skipping school, even though Shikamaru looked as though he hadn't grown one bit. "I see you've still got your goggles with you."

"Oh yeah," Naruto chuckled, grabbing the pair hanging around his neck and pulling on them. "These things have been pretty useful to me. I'm hanging onto them." He didn't know when he would need them again, but it was better to have them and not use them, then not to have them when something serious came up. "Don't suppose you're thinking of changing your wardrobe?"

"No way. Too much effort," Shikamaru replied. "This look suits me best."

"_Yeah… the easy, just rolled out of bed look."_ Obviously his classmate would pick a combination of clothes that were the simplest to put on and didn't require any effort or forethought. Naruto just rolled his eyes in amusement and went on to thinking again.

"You guys seem excited," Kiba exclaimed, coming to standing next to Naruto and lean against the desk elevated behind the jinchuriki, who looked up to see the Inuzuka grinning down at him. The boy with the white pup nestled comfortably in his jacket looked between the pair chatting away across from one another. "Wondering what teams you're gonna be put on?"

"Not really," Shikamaru replied.

"Sort of," Naruto said with a smile, propping his arm on the table. "I'm not fussed as long as we get to go on missions real soon."

"Same," Kiba chuckled before pointing to himself. "Just so you know Naruto, if we're put on the same team together, I'm the Alpha! The pack leader. Got it?"

"Ha! Isn't the pack leader supposed to be the strongest in the group?" Naruto asked with a shit-eating grin. "I bet I can kick your ass no problem, dog boy."

The feral looking teen leaned in with a grin. "We'll see about that, slacker."

"Would you guys keep it down? You're making a racket," came another voice from the side. When Kiba and Naruto looked, they saw Sasuke sitting down the row with his fingers laced together and his glare fixed on both of them. He seemed pretty irked, but that wasn't saying much since his expression always looked like that. "Take your pissing contest outside if you can't do it quietly."

The two teens smirked at the dark-haired one two seats away, deciding to reel him into their conversation as well since he seemed so willing to jab at them. "I know you're just as eager to decide who the strongest in the group is too, Sasuke," Kiba exclaimed.

"Not just in taijutsu, but all around ninjutsu as well," Naruto added.

The Uchiha grunted and closed his eyes. "That debate seems kind of pointless, don't you think? We already know who the best in the class is, and you're both looking at him." It was hard to hide the cocky smirk he sprouted upon saying this, the sight of which instantly brought out the competitive natures of the two delinquents gunning it out with each other nearby.

"Oh yeah? Want to test that title out, Mister Prodigy?" Kiba asked while holding a fist up, a bark emanating from Akamaru in support of his partner.

"I knocked your arrogant ass around the past several times in class, teme. I can do it again," Naruto also exclaimed challengingly.

While the three had their intense stand-off in the corner, Shikamaru shook his head at the absurdity of the scene before going back to napping.

"_What a troublesome bunch,"_ the boy thought before giving a yawn. He chose to block out the little show going on beside him, getting comfortable in his seat at around the same time Sakura and Ino suddenly decided to come charging through the door, out of breath and looking ragged from an apparent race to get to the academy first.

Naruto glanced up when he heard the scramble at the top entrance. When he spotted the two girls, he saw Sakura look down towards his level, smile sweetly and start fast-walking towards them. The blonde responded with a grin and a wave towards the approaching kunoichi. "Hey, Sakura-chan! How's it going?"

"Yeah, hi Naruto," Sakura replied carelessly before suddenly bolting right toward their row and bowling over both Kiba and Naruto, with the latter having his face shoved into the table when the girl jumped on top of him, "Good morning Sasuke-kun! Can I sit next to you?" She leapfrogged the stunned blonde and took a seat right beside the genius even before receiving any form of consent.

Kiba, knocked on his ass, glared up at the pink haired girl while Naruto remained pasted to his desk. "Damn it, Sakura! We were having a man-to-man confrontation!"

The girl stuck her tongue out at the Inuzuka. "Well, tough. You guys can hang out later." Her mood then did a complete 180 and she gazed affectionately towards the Uchiha next to her.

Sasuke meanwhile, grunted indignantly. "Whatever."

Brimming with fake tears at having his face slammed into his desk from the ever exuberant Sakura Haruno, Naruto managed to lift himself up and rub his chin painfully. "Ow… what the hell?" He saw Kiba sit up next to him and, while the pair looked across to see Sakura fawning over the Uchiha along with several other girls out to steal the seat from her, the pair leaned in to each other to whisper, "I thought that if you were at least nice to girls they'd be nice back and start liking you. What's up with that?"

Kiba shrugged, "I don't know dude. I don't get girls either." Take that as wisdom from a man who had a tough-as-nails older sister and an equally terrifying mother in the same household.

The pair just watched oddly as Sakura started her own feud in the middle row with the other girls, which slowly turned into quite an entertaining performance when Naruto and Kiba saw the various tick marks forming on Sasuke's head as he sat in the center of the proverbial super storm. The two classmates then settled on the obvious karma of their reality that if something bad happened to them, then something good was bound to happen in kind.

Sasuke's suffering would be their compensation for being knocked on their butts seconds earlier.

OOO

Unbeknownst to all of the kids in the recently graduated academy group, their classroom was currently being monitored by the all-seeing-eye of one Hiruzen Sarutobi, who, along with the handful of Jonin captains that would be taking on teams this year, were currently in conference over some of the more prospective Genin of the batch. With everyone gathered including the notoriously late Hatake Kakashi, the would-be squad leaders looked on in amusement at the sight of Uchiha Sasuke being flocked by his fan club.

"He seems rather popular," Hayama, a man with brown hair in a ponytail and a scar on the side of his mouth exclaimed, earning chuckles all around.

"No doubt about that," Asuma Sarutobi also commented, nodding towards the crystal ball in the center of the Hokage's desk. "So that's the most promising student, Sasuke Uchiha? Correct?"

"That's right," Hiruzen replied, looking up at the collection of instructors gathered in front of him. "Out of all the students in the class he's got the highest marks in all areas; an excellent prodigy. On top of that he's incredibly perceptive and exceptionally talented for his age. Even his teachers said that his combat skills alone measure up to that of a Chunin's."

"Now that indeed is a promising student," Kurenai commented with a smile.

Kakashi, who had been standing quietly beside the desk and looking at the orb intently, saw the ball's view slowly maneuver around and land on the familiar face of one Naruto Uzumaki, who was laughing boisterously alongside Kiba. After watching him and his companion for a few minutes, the Jonin smiled underneath his mask and nodded towards it, "What about this one?"

"Naruto Uzumaki?" Hiruzen murmured, a smile appearing on his own face, "Ah yes, the most _interesting_ student."

A Jonin wrapped in bandages looked up towards the village leader, "Isn't he the one that single-handedly brought down two enemy kunoichi and Mizuki in one night?"

"The same kunoichi that attacked him two years ago, mind you," Kakashi added before looking towards the elder. "What do we have to say about him?"

"Though his character says otherwise, Naruto is also an incredible prospect," Hiruzen stated, lacing his fingers together and breathing evenly on his pipe. "His grades vary above average, yet his experiences outside of the academy tell a different story. He's a fast kinesthetic learner and Iruka has mentioned time and again that of all the students he's taught, Naruto's skill in combat is the most diverse, and that he's also the swiftest and fittest in the group. His fighting prowess actually surpasses Sasuke's."

Asuma and Kurenai looked up in surprise, whereas the other Jonin around them started to stir over the student tied for number one of the group. "No kidding…"

OOO

Following the arrival of Iruka Umino to the class, any and all tussles that had been taking place prior were quickly suppressed and all students scattered around the room retired to their seats. Through determination and pure strength of will, Sakura had managed to win her place beside Sasuke from the other girls, mostly for the fact that she was already in the seat beside him by the time their academy instructor came around. So in the end, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke all ended up sitting together in the same row, with the jinchuriki leaning on his desk with an excited grin in play, Sakura beaming happily with rosy red cheeks, and Sasuke looking more annoyed than he had ever been in his life.

It was probably thanks to the whole ordeal he had to sit through leading up to this moment.

"From this day forward, all of you are officially recognized as shinobi of _Konohagakure no Sato_," Iruka began with a smile on his face and clipboard in hand as he looked around at all the expectant faces in his class. "As such, the tasks, trials and responsibilities of a shinobi have now been placed upon your shoulders, and you will all be expected to carry out missions to the best of your abilities for both your home and for your comrades. To get here you have faced great tests and hardships, but know that all of that was just the beginning. From here on out things are only going to get tougher and the trials, more difficult."

"Awesome," Naruto whispered eagerly, his feet rocking from heel to toe as he sat listening to the words of his sensei.

Iruka beamed up at his students. "Now you are only Genin; first level ninja. As with every other year all of you will be grouped into three-man squads, each of which will be led by a Jonin; an elite ninja. The Jonin assigned to your team will become both your squad leader and your new teacher. You will follow your sensei's instructions to the latter in order to successfully complete any and all missions given. I wish you all the best for your future as shinobi and kunoichi of our village." He gave his speech a brief moment of pause to allow all the information to sink in, before raising the clipboard he was holding up and clearing his throat, "I will begin announcing the squads that will be formed for the duration of your career as Genin."

This statement immediately had everyone's attention locked onto him.

One by one, name by name, the teams were listed off of Iruka's clipboard as the man went over the sheet provided to him by the Third. The Chunin had something of a satisfied grin on his face as he announced each name in turn, with each announcement accompanied by either an affirmative 'yes', a groan of dismay, or a small whoop of delight. His smile seemed to grow in conjunction with every groan he was able to pick up, so it was safe to say that the scar-faced man was enjoying his position as God over his soon to be former students.

This instilled the belief in Iruka that the next trials his class was sure to face would be their next, greatest challenge, one he was looking forward to seeing the results of.

The homeroom teacher than arrived at the next set of names, "Team 7 will be Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke. Your instructor will be Hatake Kakashi."

"Cha!" Sakura cheered, before turning in her seat and giving Ino the 'V' sign, "Take that, Ino-pig!"

The blonde haired girl with blue eyes and wearing the purple uniform glared back with her teeth bared, "Lucky call. How in the world did you end up on that team?"

"Don't know," Sakura replied smugly while shrugging. "The power of love? It _is_ the strongest force in the universe. I'll let you think on it a little." After seeing her rival attempt to bore a hole into her with her glare, the pink haired girl then turned her attention to the stoic as ever Uchiha and sided up a little bit closer to him. "We're on the same squad. Isn't that great, Sasuke-kun?"

"Hmph…" the boy grunted back before smirking across at the blonde he could see returning the sentiment. "Looks like I'll be getting my rematch sooner than I think."

Naruto chuckled, "Looking forward to it," he replied, turning back toward the front of the class. "I'm totally cool with this."

Iruka smiled when he heard the blonde's response and nodded proudly, before glancing back down at his list. While all this was going on, a couple rows behind Naruto to his right the blonde failed to notice the disappointed gaze he was receiving from one Hinata Hyuuga. The blue haired girl wearing the light brown jumper gave a sad frown as she glanced down at the boy in orange, feeling a little bit let down at missing her best chance of getting closer to him.

"_I won't be with Naruto then,"_ the girl thought, breathing a heavy sigh.

"Next, Team 8 will be consisting of Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, and Aburame Shino. Your instructor and team leader is Yuhi Kurenai," Iruka said loud enough for the above three to hear, looking up to see the squad listed nod or smirk in acknowledgement. He then moved on, "Because Team 9 is being used for a different team we needed to move on to the next number. Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji, you three are on Team 10 and your Jonin captain is Sarutobi Asuma."

Ino groaned and slammed her head on her desk. Choji, who was sitting beside her and munching on a packet of chips, looked toward her in surprise. "Hey, you okay, Ino?"

"I'm fine," the girl groaned back, her voice muffled by her face being pressed into her desk.

"And that's it for team assignments," Iruka concluded, folding his clipboard under his arm and clicking his pen, "You will be meeting your Jonin instructors here after lunch. Until then I suggest you all get together with your teammates, get to know them and… well… have fun. Good luck to all of you." With that sorted, Iruka took one last look at the class for that hour before turning heel and taking his leave.

Once the door closed behind him, students left and right started to move, either heading on over to meet up with their teammates or leaving individually. Sasuke remained in his seat for the time being, waiting for the rest of the class to move out of his way so that he could make his own march over to the door without distraction. This gave Sakura several moments of quiet time with him that she enjoyed in every possible manner, beaming at him with a light coloring in her cheeks.

"_He's so cool,"_ Sakura thought happily, until she was rudely interrupted from her daydreaming session by a light thump on her desk. When the pinkette looked ahead of her, the kunoichi gave a startled yelp when she saw Naruto squatting on top of the desk and grinning right in her face. "What the hell?!"

"Hey Sakura-chan. Want to hang out and have lunch together?" the blonde asked cheerfully.

The girl frowned at him, "Why in the world would I want to have lunch with you?"

"Well… since we're in the same group I just thought that maybe we could talk and get to know each other a little better, you know?" Naruto replied good-naturedly before turning to Sasuke to see him staring at them with one eye. "What do you think, Sasuke?"

Giving the cheerful runt some moments of consideration, the raven haired boy grunted and closed his eyes, "Whatever. Anything's fine with me."

"Sweet," Naruto chirped before grinning back at Sakura, who appeared a little surprised at the Uchiha actually agreeing with the class clown. "So… where can we go eat?"

"How about having lunch with me, shithead?!" a familiar voice suddenly shouted from the class entrance.

The loud voice accompanied by the profanity at the end had every single individual in the room turn in the direction of the call, where everyone saw a girl around their age with redish-pink hair they had never seen before, standing inside the frame. Wearing a khaki battle dress with spandex shorts, a cap and the Konoha headband wrapped around it, the girl made her presence known all around by stepping fully into view with her hands resting comfortably on her hips.

Kiba's eyes went a little wide as he looked the cute newcomer up and down. "Who is that?"

Almost every boy's jaw dropped when they saw the beautiful girl standing in plain sight of them, whereas every other girl in the class stared at her either with suspicion or confusion. Was this person here for their Sasuke-kun? Was she an older Genin here to make fun of them or was she a surprise candidate? Who was she?

And who was this 'shithead' she was calling? No way was it someone in their…

"Tayuya-chan!" Naruto waved back from his spot on the desk, seeing the musician giggle before dashing over to him. "What are you doing here? I thought you were meeting up with Anko-sensei today?"

"Already did. Turns out we were right when we thought that all the individual Genin graduates under apprenticeships would be put together on a single team with a new instructor," Tayuya exclaimed while thumbing herself in the chest. "You're looking at the first member of the new Team 9."

"Wow! That's awesome!" Naruto said, dropping down from the desk to stand in front of her. "Iruka-sensei mentioned that Team 9 was being used by another group. So it's _your_ squad."

"Oh yeah," Tayuya replied, latching onto his arm and hugging him tightly, "I'm so psyched right now. This is going to be awesome!"

"Whoa, yeah, I can tell," Naruto chuckled, feeling how tightly his limb was being squeezed by the girl's surprisingly powerful arms. It was almost like she was trying to pop his left out of its socket, "So who's your teacher? I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it's _not_ Anko-sensei, seeing as how happy you are."

The musician shook her head. "No, we got some guy named Genma. He's going to be picking us up outside the academy gates after lunch, so we figured we could all stick together and get to know each other before that. Since we don't know much about the other members of our group, I think it's a good idea." She gestured towards the door, "My team's waiting outside if you want to meet them."

"Sure. I'd love to," Naruto grinned back.

As the two laughed and spoke fondly of how thrilled they were to finally be put onto teams, everyone in the class was looking toward them flabbergasted. While those who knew who Naruto was looked like gaping fish, those who knew the jinchuriki personally from the past or had spent the most time with him face to face were simply blown away at the sudden turn of events. Shikamaru was staring with an open jaw, Choji had stopped eating mid-chew, and Kiba, Ino and Sakura were looking at the boy with owlish expressions in play. Even Sasuke was staring with visible disbelief.

"Okay… what the hell? Why is a girl latching onto the class clown like he's her boyfriend?" Ino asked, rubbing her eyes to see if she was hallucinating. Nope. She wasn't. There was in fact a girl, a really beautiful, flesh and bones girl hanging off of Naruto's arm and gazing up at him like he was her whole world.

It was an indisputable observation. The red head that had just entered their class and flocked to Naruto's side was honestly drop-dead gorgeous.

Meanwhile, one other person in the class who was completely beside herself or fretting with concern was in fact the Hyuuga up in the back row. Hands held together worryingly, the young kunoichi gazed towards her idol and his visitor quietly with shimmering eyes, _"W-Who is this person?"_ Hinata thought while pressing her hands to her chest. _"I've… never seen __**her**__ before. Is she a relative of Naruto-kun's… or… or…"_

Tayuya, after sharing pleasantries with her flat mate, then turned her attention to Sasuke and Sakura, whom she could see were still staring at them incredulously. "Why doesn't your team come with us? We can have lunch together."

"Great idea," Naruto replied, also looking at the aforementioned pair. "Hey guys, we got ourselves a table!"

"R-Right," Sakura murmured, all the while still trying to come to terms with the fact that a girl was, in front of the entire class, associating with Naruto in a more than 'just good friends' manner.

OOO

After Tayuya led Naruto and his team outside to meet up with hers, the two groups then decided to head somewhere quiet to eat, away from everybody else. While it was a pain trying to drag some of the others to the appropriate spot, seeing as that Sasuke wanted to be alone more than anything else, they eventually succeeded in picking out an area to sit around. Finding a tree with a good clearing nearest the path running through the academy grounds, the two squads converged and, in a word, mingled.

Being the most social of them, Naruto had taken to speaking with Tayuya's teammates along with the Uchiha. There was apparently a great diversity of Genin in this generation, seeing as that his friend had been paired up with two very different looking people. One of them was a boy with short black hair that went over his left eye, wearing a white full body jumpsuit, with grey shin guards, blue sandals, white gloves, and a long blue scarf. The third member of the team was a girl with light blonde, slightly messy hair tied into a ponytail, was wearing swirl-tinted glasses, dark pants, and a light purple, oversized jumper.

They seemed nice enough, even the boy in the figure-hugging suit who was currently making tea for all of them… with a tea set he had 'conveniently' brought along with him, while his companion sat pleasantly beside him with a content smile on her face. Yeah, they looked like a couple of oddballs, but what sane village didn't have its fair share of characters? As long as Tayuya was happy with this team there was absolutely no reason Naruto couldn't be happy for her.

He liked meeting new faces anyway.

"So, how does it feel to finally be recognized as shinobi of the hidden leaf village?" Naruto asked, tilting his head at the pair, "Pretty hardcore, huh?"

The girl in glasses glanced at him with a start, having not expected to be asked a question so suddenly. "Oh? Umm… y-yeah. Pretty hardcore."

Naruto's grin widened, "It might take some getting used to, but I'm definitely looking forward to the missions." He scratched his head, "I wonder what kind of assignments our new sensei will have for us."

"Who knows?" the girl shrugged, "I tried asking my old teacher about it, but he said for me to wait until graduation. Ugh. It's got me so frustrated thinking about it."

"Perhaps… some tea will soothe the soul of the lovely young lady," the boy with dark hair brewing the refreshments said in a slow, calm voice as he passed a steaming cup to the girl in glasses. The blonde haired kunoichi looked up at him in surprise as the young man smiled fondly in her direction, "Food and drink made with love are always best served warm. Please…"

"Oh… th-thank you, Kaede-kun," the young girl exclaimed.

He then passed cups to the two boys, both Naruto and Sasuke looking down at his offering curiously, "I made enough for everyone here. Have as much as you like."

"Sweet. Thanks," Naruto laughed, taking the tea from Tayuya's teammate gleefully.

The Uchiha also took his with a pleasant nod, "Thank you." He caught a whiff of the tea's heavenly aroma, which nearly had his heart race at how delectable it appeared, "Hm… smells good."

Unable to wait and most eager to try the refreshments, Naruto, Sasuke and the glasses wearing kunoichi all took a sip at the exact same time…

…

…

And paled a split second later at what they felt roll onto their tongues. Recoiling in horror, both Naruto and Sasuke painfully swallowed whatever it was in their mouths whereas the kunoichi sitting beside them froze in shock. All three of them then held their tea cups and plates out at arm's length, looking at them with suspicion and disgust while the boy, now identified as Kaede, sat beside them and waited eagerly for their responses.

"Well? What do you think?" he asked cheerfully.

"W-What do we think… uhh…?" the girl murmured, a nervous smile tugging on her lips. "Well…"

"Uhh… how should we put this?" Sasuke also murmured, trying to ignore the bitter taste of what could only be described as fish oil on his tongue while trying to come up with the right words to gently tell the tea maker that…

"It sucks," Naruto said straight out without hesitation, not wanting to keep his fellow Genin waiting for a half-baked review from the other two. They might as well tell the poor guy the truth. The tea he put his heart into making for them was just plain awful. All three of them then saw Kaede flinch at the reply and glance back at them in surprise.

"Y-You…" the Genin stammered. "Don't… like the tea?"

When he got three lifeless stares in response, it pretty much gave him his answer.

In the blink of an eye, the boy was suddenly on his feet and, finding a tree standing several meters away from where the two groups were sitting, leant against it in a manner similar to the main protagonist of a romantic comedy after being dumped. The fact that violins could be heard all around and a proverbial raincloud appeared to hover over him only served to magnify his despair.

"I am a failure…" Kaede muttered.

Naruto and Sasuke sweat dropped at the sight of him before turning to look at the girl beside them, who was also staring quite oddly.

"Does he… get out much?" Naruto asked.

"I honestly don't know," the kunoichi sighed before smiling apprehensively towards the pair, "It's okay though. I'm sure he'll be fine."

"Are you sure about that?" Sasuke asked with concern, raising an eyebrow when he saw the storm cloud over the boy's head only worsen and start to hail.

"Absolutely," the still slightly shell-shocked kunoichi chirped, setting her tea down and pushing her glasses back up her nose. She smiled towards the teen in orange across from her and extended a hand out to him, "I'm Shiho by the way. I believe I already mentioned Kaede-kun."

"Naruto," the jinchuriki replied with a grin before nodding toward the Uchiha quietly eating beside him. "This guy's name is Sasuke. It's nice to meet you, Shiho-chan."

"It's nice to meet you too."

While Sasuke and the others communed on their end, with Kaede rejoining them soon after getting over his crippling brush with disappointment, Sakura, who had managed to pull Tayuya to the other side of the tree for a sit down, was in the midst of having a very interesting conversation of her own.

The pink haired girl continued looking between the red haired girl and Naruto as they ate silently for the first few minutes, paying little attention to the four-person conference and just focusing on her current problem…

Trying to figure out how Naruto knew this girl who seemed so incredibly attached to him.

"How long have you known Naruto for?" Sakura asked curiously with a raised eyebrow. "I've never seen you in the village before… and I don't think I ever saw him hanging out with anyone else besides himself." It was a basic question and one she could pull without much strain. Seeing as that she had always been parading around Sasuke, she never paid any mind to the biggest delinquent and slacker of the class, so she was kind of out of the loop.

The musician chuckled. "I've known shithead for quite some time now," Tayuya exclaimed, taking a big bite of her dango stick. "I'd say about… two years…"

"That's another thing; why are you calling him _shithead_ if he's your friend?" Sakura asked with a strange look. "That seems like a very harsh nickname to give someone."

"I think it suits him. What? You got a problem with it?" Tayuya asked.

"N-No… not really," the pink haired girl said hastily, shaking her head. "It does sound a little odd though."

"So does _Tayuya-chan_," the musician shook her head. "I really didn't like how he called me that the first time we met since it sounded so weird, but it's kind of grown on me. I call him shithead for the exact same reason because he doesn't mind it… and because he's got a 'punch first' personality and doesn't think ahead that often. He really has a habit of jumping into things without considering his actions first."

"Yeah. You can say that again," Sakura exclaimed, finally finding some common ground with the red haired newcomer. "Naruto's a complete moron. He doesn't think about anything other than fighting, making noise and causing trouble for people. I'm telling you, he's nothing like Sasuke-kun."

"No, he's not," Tayuya replied before giving the girl a very real, very warm smile that radiated with sincerity, "He's better than him."

Sakura's mouth dropped open, "Uh… come again?"

Tayuya chuckled after she consumed her second dango stick and quickly moved on to give her response further detail. "Oh, don't get me wrong. Your other teammate looks cool and all, but from the way he marches around with his hands in his pockets and not giving a shit about anything, tells me he's not really the sociable type of person. It's kind of hard to talk to someone when they just flat-out ignore everything you have to say, you know?"

"B-But," Sakura attempted to respond, shaking her head a little to glare back at her. "What are you talking about? Sasuke-kun is awesome." She began counting on her fingers, "He's intelligent, sharp, handsome, talented, great at ninjutsu, and better at everything that Naruto is good at."

"Except for fighting," Tayuya chuckled before shrugging, "Talking to people… connecting with people… AND making people happy." She nodded towards the four-way on the other side of the tree when she heard Shiho giggle and Kaede laugh, "Right there's proof of that. Hell, he even managed to get tall, dark and emo to come out here with him to eat."

"Alright, sure, but you're missing the bigger picture," Sakura said with a groan of annoyance. She just didn't see the appeal behind the blonde and why this girl liked him so much yet. All she wanted to do was support Sasuke in this contest since the red head seemed to be shooting down everything she was saying. In an effort to perhaps get this seemingly misguided girl on the path to the 'good stuff', she decided to go on the attack. "If you've known him for as long as you say you have then you should see it too. The guy's not normal. Naruto acts like an animal, he sleeps in class, he's rude to his teachers, he pulls pranks on people and makes their lives miserable, and he's always picking fights. It's annoying. And I think I know the main reason why."

Tayuya was about to take a bite out of her dango when she heard that and she stopped. She then looked at the girl next to her to see her smile smugly.

"Because he wasn't raised right. He doesn't have a mother or father to teach him right from wrong. If I acted anything like him, my parents would ground me for months, but because he doesn't have any, he can do whatever he wants without worrying about being punished or scolded. That's why he acts so selfish, arrogant and bratty," Sakura exclaimed with a shake of her head. "He's lucky being all alone with no parents to tell him what to do. That's why he always causes trouble for everyone, see? He's just a dumb, ignorant, irresponsible delinquent trying to get attention. He never does anything good…"

The girl was suddenly interrupted from her tirade when her collar was grabbed from the front and she was violently pulled towards Tayuya, who slammed her forehead against hers in a rough head butt. When Sakura recovered from the tug and looked at the girl through a throbbing skull, she recoiled in shock when she saw the look of anger on the red head's face.

A dark, killer shadow falling across her eyes, Tayuya narrowed her most intense glare on the pink haired girl and bared her teeth, "Don't you dare say another word."

"W-Wha?"

"What do you know about being alone? Having no parents? Huh? How about living on the streets? Being abandoned by your loved ones? Having to beg and fight in order to survive without anyone to support you?" Tayuya said in a low, threatening voice. "Sure, it sucks to be scolded by a father or mother, but that's nothing compared to what Naruto-kun has felt his entire life. Consider yourself lucky that you _do_ have parents to admonish you, to love you and to look out for you. Naruto-kun has nobody."

Sakura gulped, eyes and body trembling as she listened to the words being hissed to her.

"And for your information pinky, there's plenty of good in him, more good than in anyone I've ever met," Tayuya replied before shoving the girl away and going back to her lunch. The musician grunted as Sakura hurriedly tried to regain her sense of balance from the killing intent she had just been bombarded with at close range. Before Tayuya could finish her dango, she paused and looked up with a pissed expression still in plain sight. "You wanted to talk to me alone, right; to find out how Naruto-kun knows me and how I know him?"

Sakura nodded, at the same time trying to stop her body from trembling like a leaf.

Tayuya glanced over at her, "I was abandoned by my parents. I lived on the streets for months, sleeping out in the cold, living on my own, begging for food… not knowing what to do. When the day eventually came where I thought I was going to die… when I thought my life was going to end… Naruto-kun saved me." She finished the dumpling and chucked the stick into the box, closing it. "Think about _that_ when you guys are out on a mission together, because the only person you can count on if you're ever in any trouble is the person standing right next to you."

Getting up, the musician went around and rejoined the rest of their team. She saddled up beside Naruto and quickly reverted back to her previously composed self, leaving a stunned Sakura to meditate on her thoughts.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

* * *

**Author's Note:** Well, here's another chapter come and gone, and I hope everyone enjoyed it.

There were a few things I wanted to cover with this chapter, one of them being Naruto first meeting the Kyuubi and, being himself, has a nice friendly chat with it. I'm surprised he didn't meet up with it sooner in the original story, but it just shows how strong the seal was (I guess). Naruto screwing with it in this story weakened it and allowed him to make a connection with the Kyuubi much earlier. It also esstablishes the immediate relationship between the two; the Kyuubi still being hostile toward humans and Naruto being the approachable and friendly youngster that he is, who just wants to be friends with him.

I also wanted to power past the Konohamaru meeting thing, since that's all rince and repeat (not really worth writing again), Naruto learning the Kage Bunshin, since I've already mentioned he has a fuck-ton more chakra than before so even for a first time can produce a few clones (only about half a dozen at this stage), and I got rid of all the unnecessary garbage from the original story that I just didn't approve (Naruto bashing, the NaruSasu kiss bleagh, and the Naruto bathroom nonsense). Beating up the character and making piss-fart jokes is not how you write a story. No. Just no.

Then there was also the team assignments. There are really so many ways I could have done the squads, but for the story I've written, I wanted to keep the original teams how they were. I have some good ideas I want to try out, and I needed to keep the team how it was to do it. I'm sure you'll enjoy the direction I take the story from here later on, because it gets WAY better.

I also wanted to do something about Sakura, because there is that stage where she eventually warms up to Naruto, but she still needs to get past that part where she viewed him as an annoying kid. By straight up telling her what Naruto's life was like instead of leaving it cryptic like Sasuke did in the original is probably the best way to hasten that change in her character and get the girl to see how dreadful she was to him (a wake-up call if you will) and get her to grow and change to become a better person. Tayuya stepping up to defend Naruto was a nice touch and would certainly knock some sense into her.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading this. More to come. :)


	8. Aiming High

**NARUTO**

**Drifting**

_Aiming High_

**After lunch…**

Following a very enjoyable conversation with Tayuya's team and his own, which even Sasuke found surprisingly pleasant from the small smile he wore on his face, the two groups then parted ways. They promised to meet up with each other later onwards, and once numbers and addresses had been exchanged, retreated to their designated rendezvous points.

Also, for whatever reason that was shaking her, Naruto couldn't help but notice that Sakura was acting more distant towards both him and Sasuke after her little chat with Tayuya. She was a lot more anxious than before, a sight that told the jinchuriki that something was bothering her.

All the same, as long as she was still with them back in the classroom they didn't have to worry about the team going on unaccounted for. At least Sasuke was pleased at the change in atmosphere, since he was no longer getting swamped by the pinkette or her blonde haired rival. This made their journey back to class far smoother than it probably would have been if Sakura were in a better mood.

When the bell sounded and all the newly graduated Genin filed back into their soon to be former homeroom, they found a group of uniformed adults already there and waiting for them. Doing the logical thing, Team 7 decided to stick together for the upcoming procedure so upon finding their own row at the side of the room, sat in the usual manner prior to their recess hour and waited to be introduced to their sensei.

"I hope you all had a good break," Iruka began with a smile as he directed everyone's attention to the shinobi behind him, "Because it's time to get down to business. The men and women you see standing before you are going to be your Jonin instructors for the duration of your tenure as Genin. They will be the ones who will be leading your team on missions and overseeing your training as a group, so make sure to work hard, study hard, and listen well."

With that said and done, each of the Jonin captains at the front of the classroom then stepped forward one after the other and began taking teams away by the number they were assigned. The squads were led out in no particular order, but soon enough every single group was transported out of the room, leaving only Team 7 and a slightly confused looking Iruka standing at the front.

Sakura, confused and concerned, stood up and raised her hand, "Umm… Iruka-sensei… what about our team leader? Isn't he here yet?" She hoped he was late because if he wasn't and she was about to learn that they had in fact failed as a squad she was going to cry.

Iruka sweatdropped and looked down at his clipboard, "Uhh… you guys have Hatake Kakashi as your instructor, right?" He looked up and saw three affirmative nods. He then smiled in amusement, "Yeah, you're going to be waiting here for a while."

Mouths opening to gape, Naruto and Sakura looked like they were about to mount some sort of complaint until they saw the Chunin turn tail and grip the frame of the entrance. He turned and grinned back at them, "I've got a lot of work to do now, so I gotta go. Good luck you guys." He then slid the door shut, leaving behind two very perplexed kids and one who was still in a state of complete composure.

Sasuke laced his hands together and propped his elbows up on the desk, "Well… he said we'll be here for a while."

The pink haired girl beside him huffed and folded her arms, "That's just great."

The three of them then planted themselves wherever they were presently stationed and waited.

The first fifteen minutes was spent in relative silence in the same row the group had picked out when they first arrived. But as the clock continued to tick and time pulled into the half-hour mark, the trio started to grow a little more restless. Naruto took to wandering the classroom and jumping around the desks, whereas Sakura had moved off to the side to look out the window. The only person who was really able to keep it together was the Uchiha, who spent his time in contemplative hush and trying to block out the rest of the world around him.

When an hour came and went, in which Naruto then found himself lying across one of the desks up in the middle row, the boy suddenly found the rays of sunlight he was bathing in blocked by the familiar silhouette of Sakura coming to stand behind him. The jinchuriki sat up with a start and looked at the nervous looking kunoichi with inquiry, "Hey, Sakura-chan. What's up?"

Shuffling uncomfortably on the spot, the pink haired teen slowly turned to look up at the boy with an apologetic expression. It was apparent from her long period of silence after their break that she had been thinking a lot on whatever it was that had been troubling her, and so had chosen now rather than later to finally bring it up.

Based on her current state of appearance and mood, she obviously had something serious she had to say to him.

"N-Naruto… I… I just wanted to say… I'm sorry."

"Huh? For what?"

"It's just, after lunch I had some time to think and… well," the girl sighed and, clenching her fists tightly for a moment, faced the boy with utmost intent and purpose. Kami, this was difficult. But if she didn't say this now she wouldn't be able to move forward and their group would suffer because of it. She had to say it. She HAD to. "In all the years I spent here in the academy, I only ever thought of you as nothing more than a delinquent and a troublemaker, and I always ignored you every time you tried to speak with me. Because you were always acting silly and always causing problems for the teachers, I didn't try to get to know you like everybody else, because I thought you were a bad influence on people."

Naruto blinked, tilting his head towards the girl as he listened in to what she had to say. It was compelling stuff, particularly since it was all concerning him, and he had no intention of stopping her.

From the way she approached him before all anxious and rigid, he knew she had to get this off of her chest.

Sucking in air, Sakura tensed up, "I was stupid and insensitive. I labeled you as an idiot and a nuisance right from the start, and stayed away from you. Because of that, I wasn't able to get to know you like I should have. I misjudged you and avoided you, so I wasn't able to see what a nice guy you really were. It was awful of me to treat you the way I did… and I'm sorry." She bowed low and clenched her eyes shut in dread, afraid that the boy might snap at her. He had every right to, "I'm very sorry."

Remaining silent for what felt like an eternity, Naruto meditated on the girl's words for the next minute or so. It was a lot to take in, especially since this was the most words he could remember Sakura ever speaking to him, even after all the times he'd tried to approach her. It was a surprising change of pace to actually have the girl come to him instead, so it took a while for everything she had to say to sink in.

After a certain amount of time of contemplation had passed, Naruto then allowed a cheerful smile to creep across his face and sat cross-legged on the desk, facing the kunoichi. The posture he took and body-language conveyed a sense of growing enthusiasm, "I don't really know what you're apologizing for Sakura-chan, but if it'll make you feel any better, is it okay if I said 'thank you'?"

Sakura's head shot up to look at him in surprise. "Y-You're not upset? B-But I've… I've been so rude to you…"

Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "Why would I be upset? We're Genin now and on the same team together. There's no need to get angry over stuff like _that_, it's all in the past now. As long as we can work together from now on and be friends, I'm okay with it." He then leaned towards her with a hopeful gaze suddenly making a play on his expression, "We… _can_ be friends, right… Sakura-chan?"

Overwhelmed, Sakura flashed the boy a warm smile and nodded enthusiastically, eyes shimmering happily, "Of course we can, Naruto! Th-Thank you…"

Chuckling, Naruto then fell silent and gave the girl a slightly harder stare than before. The smirk he wore next had the kunoichi lean away in surprise, "Tayuya-chan told you about us, didn't she?"

Sakura appeared stunned, "H-How do you know?"

The boy tapped the side of his head sagely, "I've got pretty good hearing Sakura-chan. A tree standing between two people isn't going to keep a guy like me from eavesdropping. Though I may not look the part, I can be pretty sharp when I want to be."

Flabbergasted at his response, Sakura then looked away and rubbed her arm uneasily. "So… you heard everything? Everything she and I said to each other?"

"Yeah. Pretty much," Naruto chuckled and folded his arms. "But it's okay. I'm not mad at you. Like I said, it's pointless to be mad about something like that. All I want now is for this whole team thing with you and Sasuke to work out, so as long as I have you guys to support me, then I don't want there to be any hard feelings between us." He grinned happily at the girl, "As long as we can work together and look out for each other. We're more than just teammates, Sakura-chan. We're shinobi of _Konohagakure_, classmates… friends. That's what really matters."

Sakura, eyes shining with unshed tears, smiled gratefully towards the boy and wiped her eyes clear. She nodded toward him in understanding, "Thank you… Naruto."

"No problem, Sakura-chan," the jinchuriki grinned.

While the two spent time up in their row shaking hands and starting anew, unbeknownst to them, Sasuke was looking back at the pair rather curiously, yet managed to shade his inquisition behind his usual stoic veil of equanimity. After hearing everything that was said between them, he too allowed a smirk to appear across his face and turned away, pleased that at least one wall in their small group had been torn away to make way for something better.

By the time the first hour and a half went by, the entirety of Team 7 had started to get really agitated waiting around for their teacher. This was made absolutely clear to the world by the pull into the second hour, where both Sasuke and Sakura began showing the boredom on their faces, with the former continuing to sit with pins and needles in his ass. Naruto had chosen to use this time wisely trying to make some modifications to his gauntlet arm, using a lock and pick to adjust the settings on his paintball launcher.

A sudden loud hiss followed by the sound of air cracking sharply drew Sasuke and Sakura's attention over to the blonde on the desk next to them, where they saw his face and clothing splattered with multi-colored paint.

The blonde, shocked at the unexpected discharge of his weapon, blinked away the smear that managed to get into his eyes before staring ahead of him in utter bewilderment. "Ow."

Sakura snorted, a full two seconds before hunching over and desperately trying to hold back laughter (failing miserably), whereas Sasuke turned away to hide a snicker. Naruto saw the raven haired boy's cheeks puff even when his face was averted and pointed at him accusingly, but wasn't able to pull off his usual death glare on account of him now looking like he got violated by a clown.

"I saw that!" The moment he shouted that, Sakura started laughing hysterically enough that she had to hold in her guts to keep herself from falling over and Sasuke's body begun shaking from silent fits of his own. The chorus caused Naruto to blush brightly in embarrassment, though you couldn't really see under the multi-colored pallet that was now his current visage.

It was while everyone was getting their full minute's worth of hollers that the main door to the classroom decided to open up and a man with gravity defying silver hair, wearing the regular Jonin garb, a facemask and his forehead protector pulled over one eye, poked his head into view. The appearance of the Jonin had all three kids stop and stare, while the instructor saluted with his right hand and an eye smile. "Sorry I'm late, but I had to help an old lady carry all her shopping to her house on the other side of the village, so I got a little side-tracked." He looked around at the surprised and expectant looks on the trio of Genin in the room, and upon taking stock of the group, nodded pleasantly, "You all look like you're having fun."

Naruto stared at the man with a blank expression while Sakura smiled and Sasuke grunted.

The Jonin then turned his only eye to the boy in orange… and several other colors, giving him an inquisitive look-over, "What happened to you?"

Naruto, hoping to get some ground back on this first meeting and not look like an idiot, glanced around once before staring back at the newcomer to give him the straightest answer he could think of, "I was attacked."

"By what?"

Crap, he hadn't thought that far ahead…

OOO

The newly formed Team 7 was shortly afterwards led up to the roof of the academy by their Jonin commander, who remained completely silent throughout the walk until arriving at their destination; a balcony with a line of trees and a great view of the village in front of them. He quickly instructed the bunch to take a seat over by a set of stairs while he leaned against the railing in front of it with his arms folded. He watched Sasuke take a spot further back with his fingers laced together, Naruto plop down in a carefree manner and wipe his face off with a damp cloth, and Sakura sit with her knees pulled up to her chest.

"So," the man in the mask began with a nod, "Why don't we start off with some introductions. Tell me about yourselves."

"Huh?" Sakura looked up at the man in surprise, "W-What would you like us to say?"

Kakashi held out his hands and shrugged, "Things you like, things you hate, dreams for the future… stuff like that."

Naruto tilted his head, "Well… why don't you tell us a bit about yourself first so we can see how it actually works?"

"Yeah, you look kind of suspicious," Sakura said with a frown, giving the Jonin an uncomfortable scowl. It had to be the mask. You just couldn't fully trust a guy who kept his face covered. It always sent out mixed signals.

The Jonin pointed at himself, "Me? Okay then, I'm Kakashi Hatake. Things I like and things I hate… hmm… I… don't feel like telling you any of that." He saw the three of them look at him in surprise, a cue for him to carry on. "Dreams for the future… never really thought about it. As for my hobbies, well," he looked up thoughtfully, "I have lots of hobbies."

"_So all he really told us was his name,"_ Sakura thought with a sweatdrop, something she shared with her other teammates as they stared across at the odd Jonin with deadpanned expressions.

Blinking a bit after staring at the man for a little while longer and listening to his introduction, Naruto then suddenly came to a surprising realization. Snapping his fingers, he then pointed at the Jonin triumphantly, catching everyone off guard, "Ah, now I remember where I met you before! Yeah! You were with Izumo, Kotetsu and Iruka-sensei when you came into the woods to hunt for those three kunoichi two years ago!" He was wondering why the guy's face seemed so familiar. It was impossible to forget a masked visage like that.

So _he_ was Kakashi?

The man in silver hair gave the boy an eye-smile and nodded to him, "I'm glad you remember me, Naruto-kun. It's nice to see you again."

"Yeah, same!" Naruto chirped, feeling infinitely more cheerful to learn that their teacher was actually a really good guy. He then beamed across at the Jonin brightly, "Oh, by the way, Hanare says 'thank you'!"

"Hanare?"

"She's a farmer lady I met in the _Land of the Great River_ a while ago. She said that she knew you and wanted me to give you her best," the jinchuriki exclaimed.

"Oh. Well… that's very nice." Kakashi smiled sincerely in kind. "Tell her I said 'thank you' the next time you run into her, okay," he replied with a cheerful tone.

"Sure thing." Naruto then went back to sitting comfortably with an eager stature, but then turned when he felt a couple of pairs of eyes on him. Looking across at Sasuke and Sakura, he saw that both of them were looking at him strangely with raised eyebrows, which had the blonde blink in confusion. "What?"

"You know this guy?" Sakura asked while pointing towards their instructor.

"Yeah. From a long time ago," Naruto shrugged casually, "I was in a bit of trouble and he came by to help out."

Dismissing the subject, seeing as that it would probably lead into a long story that was best put on hold for the time being due to other matters of importance, Sakura and Sasuke then turned their attention back to their teacher, who seemed to be watching them with great interest. Upon seeing their collective attention work its way back to him, Kakashi gave a nod of acknowledgement and folded his arms again.

"Okay. Now that I've talked about myself a little it's your turn," the silver haired man said before gesturing towards the blonde, "I'll let you go first, Naruto."

"Awesome, dattebayo!" the jinchuriki exclaimed, adjusting the headband around his head before straightening up a little, "My full name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like training, hanging out with my friends, and going out to see as much of the world as I can. I really like cup ramen, but I hate how you have to wait the three minutes after pouring the hot water into it. My hobbies are training and foraging, oh yeah, and my dream for the future." He swiped his thumb under his nose, "To become the greatest Hokage there ever was, so that everyone in the village will acknowledge me as a person and somebody they can depend on."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow briefly at the boy's heart-filled exclamation and nodded in understanding, smiling a bit on the inside. _"Hokage-sama was right in saying that he was the most intriguing prospect of his group." _Filing away this information for another time, the man then turned to Sakura, "Alright, next."

"I'm Sakura Haruno, I like a lot of things… especially uhh… well… the person I like the most is umm… uhh…" A light blush appeared on her face and, for reasons quite obvious, started stammering incoherently. Every exclamation was accompanied by a happy giggle and every glance was directed towards the Uchiha situated in the center of the group. Kakashi and Naruto sweatdropped at the jumble of words and the occasional 'Oh yeah' they heard from her as she attempted to give them her introduction.

"_Girls of this age are more interested in love than ninjutsu,"_ Kakashi sighed, finding the youngster's ramblings quite mindboggling. When she was finally through making her interests known to the world, the Jonin then directed his gaze to the one in the middle, "Very well… last one."

There was a brief moment of dramatic pause before the abovementioned started to speak, "My name is Sasuke Uchiha," the raven haired youngster began, in a voice both level and serious, "There are a lot of things that I dislike and very few things that I _do_ like. I have no dreams in life, only goals, with my main goals being the resurrection of my clan and becoming strong enough to kill a certain someone." When he said _this_, he said it without tearing his eyes away from the faraway look that he wore or shifted even an inch from the spot on the tiled floor he'd secured. Hell, not even his hair moved he was so rigid.

This made his statement more powerful then what it was, something that had Naruto shrug carelessly at and look back at him rather tiredly. _"Well… whatever helps him sleep at night."_

While Sakura swooned and Naruto picked at his ear, Kakashi nodded his head upon processing all of the information given to him and gazed intently at his little group. "Alright then. That's it for introductions. It's good to see that all three of you are unique individuals with your own interests and ideas. We'll have our first mission as a team tomorrow…" He saw the squad look towards him with excitement and a gradual build-up of anticipation. Once Kakashi was certain their eagerness had risen to a suitable height, he then decided to drop a bomb on their supports, "It will be a task that all four of us will do together; a survival exercise."

Naruto blinked, "Huh? Survival exercise?"

"Aren't we, like, supposed to be having a real mission or something?" Sakura asked, her face pinching into a tight scowl, "We did plenty of exercises in the academy. That's how all of us ended up here in the first place. Why are we having a survival exercise instead of going on an actual assignment?"

"This isn't like your previous training. It's a little more… _involved_ then what you're probably thinking," Kakashi stated, a cheeky smile appearing on his face as he waved a hand at them. A series of chuckles escaped his lips, "I warn you guys, you're going to freak out when I tell you this." The trio all frowned at once, not liking that sinister laugh or the smug expression he was now wearing.

Okay. The Jonin felt he'd beaten around the bush long enough. It was time to go in for the kill. Putting on the best intimidating expression he could muster without frying the kids' brains in the process and placing his hand over his face, Kakashi leaned forward and propped his elbow on his leg.

"Of the twenty-seven graduates who came out of the academy only nine will actually be accepted as Genin. The other eighteen will be weeded out and sent back for another year. In other words, this next test I'm going to give you is a make-it or break-it, pass-fail assessment, and the chances that you will fail it is at least sixty-six percent," Kakashi informed, upon which he saw the faces on all of them change drastically. The flinches were a big enough indicator that he'd really dropped the big one on them, which brought a smile to his face, "See… I told you that you'd freak out."

Naruto blinked, looking across to see that Sasuke's scowl had darkened somewhat and that Sakura was now looking especially pale. Admittedly, the jinchuriki had also suffered his own electric shock at the news, but being the kind of person used to expecting the unexpected, his outward reaction didn't exceed beyond that of a blink and a blank stare. After seeing the responses from everybody else, the jinchuriki then grinned and eagerly gazed back at the Jonin, "Sweet…"

"Wait! Then what was the point of the graduation exams?" Sakura asked hurriedly, finding the new piece of information hard to digest.

"Oh that? That was just a preliminary test to select candidates who _might_ become Genin. Or not. Sorry."

"Ugh…" Sakura groaned, now starting to feel queasy. Iruka was really onto something when he said to the class that the trials they were expected to face from now on were only going to get even tougher. Guess she should have seen this one coming.

"That's how it is. _I'm_ the one who decides whether you pass or fail. Be at the designated training spot at five A.M… and bring your ninja gear. Don't be late," Kakashi stated, hopping off of the railing and walking over to the group. Pulling out several sheets of paper from his vest pockets, he then handed each of them one to read before turning away and allowing the information he had just given to sink in. "That's it, you're dismissed. Oh… and one more thing." The man glanced over his shoulder and smirked at the kids when they turned to face him, "You may want to skip breakfast tomorrow otherwise… you'll puke."

Sasuke scrunched up the paper after reading it, letting out a low 'huff' of indifference before getting up and heading off. Sakura remained where she was seated for several minutes longer, holding her sheet tightly between her fingers and narrowing her eyes on it. All her thoughts and feelings became focused on the final obstacle standing in her way.

"_If I fail this, I'll be separated from Sasuke-kun! This is a trial of love!"_ Scrunching her paper in her grip, she then look across at Naruto to see how he was taking it. Surprisingly, she saw the boy was rocking back and forth on his stair with a wide grin on his face. She gave him a deadpanned look when she heard him giggle enthusiastically and shook her head, _"Why is he so cheerful? Shouldn't he be freaking out right now?"_

"Well! Time to get some training in!" Naruto exclaimed, jumping to his feet and waving down at the kunoichi still sitting next to him. "See yah tomorrow, Sakura-chan." He then sprinted forward and without prior thought or care, dived straight over the railing of the balcony and into the streets below like an Olympic swimmer leaping from the block, a sight witnessed by his baffled teammate and a thoroughly amused Kakashi.

Sakura deflated miserably, _"I so wish I had your confidence, Naruto…"_

OOO

**That night…**

Tayuya chuckled as she watched Naruto load up on ammunition and weapons, all in preparation for the test he was going to be taking part in tomorrow morning. From the way he was grinning so broadly you could swear he was scheduled to be doing something else the next day, like heading off to a ramen eating contest or something. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

He was pretty much wearing the same stuff he had worn all day, so there was absolutely no change or alteration made to his attire. All he did was grab several more knives from his room and wash his face of the problem he'd earlier had with his gauntlet. After a quick scrub, he was soon ready to move out, performing some stretches to warm himself up for the long haul over to the training field…

…where he was supposed to be meeting his team in about seven hours…

"Rough day, huh, shithead?"

"Not really," Naruto replied, adjusting the brace on his wrist and tugging on the goggles around his neck, "It was actually pretty cool. I got to spend time with my team and I found out that I'd already met our Jonin sensei a while back."

"Right on. Guess that makes you one of the lucky few. Maybe he'll take it easy on you guys?"

"I doubt it. He seems like the really tough kind. Plus he wears a mask, so you _know_ he's going to be pretty hardcore. Either way, I'm totally psyched about the test sensei has prepared for us. I can't wait!"

"My. Aren't we overflowing with confidence," Tayuya chuckled, taking spoonfuls of stew and downing them one after the other. She then looked up in time to see the blonde open the kitchen window and begin clambering out of it, "Try not to overdo it, shithead. You know what happens when you do."

Naruto, halfway out, looked back at his flat mate curiously, "Do _you_ have to do another test with your team tomorrow?"

The musician nodded mournfully and set her spoon down, "Yeah. Genma-sensei said that we were going to do our first mission as a group in the morning… but then he kept talking and said that it was going to be an exam. Damn it." She let out a sigh as she picked at her food, "I hate when they do that to you. Anko-sensei was exactly the same every training day. The moment you think that you're home clear after going through hell, she sends a fucking gargantuan snake to block your way." The girl then noticed Naruto's puzzled look and waved it off, "Never mind. Just get going you troublesome bastard."

"Right," Naruto grinned, pulling his goggles over his eyes and nodding, "Have fun, Tayuya-chan."

"You too, Naruto-kun," the girl exclaimed back, before watching him disappear into the night air.

XXX

**Early the next morning…**

Naruto didn't sleep a wink that night. Not a wink.

Having spent the entire time up and about, the jinchuriki had taken to wandering the entire training field foraging for all manner of interesting plant and wildlife he could find. In months past he'd made it a point to traverse as much of every area inside of the village as possible, putting his senses to the test to familiarize himself with the region in question while also making sure to memorize every path, hiding spot, branch and tree. Hell, he didn't even really need to know that much since he just did this out of habit. He could just as easily survive in any area he was dropped into.

Call it two years of wild animal instinct pounded into his brain.

Anyway, with his adrenaline pumping and mind completely set on the day to come, the boy explored the woods the entire night and met up with some of the nocturnal creatures he had previously befriended on his many adventures. When the sun finally started to rise over the distant mountains several hours later, Naruto felt that he was more than ready for the challenges awaiting him. All he needed was a good breakfast first.

To hell with what his instructor said to them. He wasn't dumb enough to skip out on a meal. He'd be running on nothing if that were the case. If he threw up during the test, he'd throw up. What was so bad about that?

Coughing up blood though, now that was even worse.

What he had was just a simple morning meal; a small amount of fungus, herbs, bugs and lizards he managed to snatch up in the woods and cook over a small fire. Believe it or not, toasted newt was really delicious. It actually tasted like… well… toasted newt.

You couldn't say a beetle the size of a shot glass tasted like chicken, because it didn't. It tasted like a God damn, mother-fucking beetle.

Sated and ready for action, Naruto then headed for the clearing where the team would be meeting up. He arrived at the exact same time as Sasuke and Sakura decided to show up, but while they were walking in from their respective homes in the village, _he_ came out of the woods. With a couple of sticks of roasted lizard held firmly in hand, the boy munched on the extra treats in delight while he met with his companions in the center of the clearing.

"Good morning," Naruto chirped, hand in his pocket. "How'd you guys sleep?"

"Well," Sasuke grunted.

"Terribly," was Sakura's tired response and was followed immediately by a yawn. She then noticed the thing in the jinchuriki's hand and looked at it apprehensively, "What the hell are you eating?"

Naruto, chewing on the meat still in his mouth, gave the kebab a contemplative glance, "Roasted leaf gecko I think." Not noticing the girl turn a slight shade of green, he then held out the second one to her, "Want one? They taste great and they're really high in protein."

"No thanks," the kunoichi replied rather nauseously. While it was an incredibly thoughtful gesture, Sakura just wasn't in the mood for exotic delicacies right now. Plus she was on a diet, so what else could she say? "Didn't Kakashi-sensei say not to have breakfast, Naruto?"

"Yeah. So?"

"So… aren't you worried about puking your guts out when he's got us running around and doing stuff?" Sakura asked with a frown, something that even had Sasuke's full attention as he looked across at the jinchuriki.

Naruto laughed, "I'm not worried about _that_ at all. To be honest, I'm way more concerned about what he'll have us doing that he says will have us puking our guts out." He held out the kebabs to both of them; the one he had already taken a bite out to Sasuke while the other one he handed to Sakura. "Look, it's better to have something to eat and go in with energy to burn than none at all; otherwise we won't be able to concentrate. Trust me. It sucks when you're running on an empty tank."

Hearing two loud growls coming from those who didn't have anything to eat that morning, both Sasuke and Sakura blushed and tried to cover the noises up with their hands. After some careful consideration in regards to what Naruto had said and what was being offered to them, on top of the complaints their insides were giving them at having no food in them, the pair eventually gave in. Sasuke took the kebab offered to him and ate the side that his teammate hadn't already taken a bite of. Sakura was more hesitant about it, giving the lizard a dirty look before having the tail end first.

It was surprisingly a lot tastier than the two earlier expected, so after a few tentative nibbles, the pair eventually horked down the roasted reptiles till there was nothing left. In addition to the lizards, Naruto also pulled out some salad with sweet grass and mushrooms from his pocket, both wrapped in large leaves similar to what sticky rice came in.

He tossed it to each of them, "You can eat these things whole. They're all edible, even the wrappings," Naruto exclaimed, watching happily as his teammates did as advised. Sasuke was wise enough to only have half of his and wrapped the rest of it for later, while Sakura pretty much consumed all of hers. "Didn't eat dinner either, huh?"

Looking a little ashamed, the girl glanced away with red in her cheeks, "Yeah."

"That's okay," Naruto exclaimed while slipping both hands into his pockets, "But you may want to drop the habit of dieting. We're shinobi; so we get out more than ordinary people do. If you deny your body the fuel it needs to burn while moving or fighting, you'll starve."

Sakura looked towards the jinchuriki in slight astonishment, with Sasuke even giving the boy an impressed glance before turning his back on the pair.

It was quite rare to see this side of Naruto, since all they'd ever saw of him in class was his everyday tomfoolery and lack of interest in everything remotely educational. Based on his character and interests, they figured he was just one of those who didn't bother to prepare for the worst and didn't know anything about the world around him, when in truth he was really quite sharp. This brought a more fascinated glimmer to Sakura's gaze as she took to staring at the boy for a while, up to the point he turned away from them and had a bite of a long-mountain mushroom he'd also picked up in the woods.

"_Since when was Naruto… so cool…"_ the kunoichi wondered in awe, shortly before snapping back into reality when she realized who it was she was thinking so deeply about. She shook her head fiercely before also turning away, "Th-Thanks for the tip."

"No problem, Sakura-chan."

The talk of food and preparation soon deteriorated into silence as all three Genin began waiting patiently for the arrival of their instructor. What shortly followed a decent hour into their wait was an ordeal almost reminiscent of the day before when, for the next few rotations of the clock, the group stood in the middle of the clearing doing absolutely nothing of value but waiting around for a man who was more than likely to show up by the end of next week or the turn of the century.

Seriously! Who the hell was this late for a meeting that _they_ organized? Did their teacher forget to set his alarm clock? Was he still asleep? Was the man doing this to them on purpose? These questions plagued the minds of all of them as Sakura decided to sit and have a little nap, Naruto went to chase grasshoppers across the field, and Sasuke just stood in the same spot and stared off towards the distant horizon.

Finally, after approximately five hours of waiting, judging from the position of the sun, Kakashi decided to show up. He smiled pleasantly and gave a wave, "Morning everyone. Ready for your first day?"

"_**HEY! YOU'RE LATE!"**_ both Naruto and Sakura shouted, with Sasuke looking across at the Jonin with clear displeasure.

The silver haired former truant chuckled and pointed sheepishly over his shoulder, "Well, a black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way around." That had to be the worst lie ever concocted by a human being, living or dead, something that the entire team had no problems frowning at. Clearing his throat of the awkwardness, Kakashi then made his way over to the three large tree stumps standing nearby, "Okay. Let's get started."

Instructing them to set their gear down beside his next to the center post, along with a clock which he primed for noon, he then led the squad back to the middle of the field. With their undivided attention fixed on him, he then reached into his pocket and pulled out two bells, which tinkled loudly when he flicked them.

"Your assignment is very simple; you just have to take these bells from. That's all there is to it," Kakashi exclaimed, glancing down at the items in question before pointing towards the three stumps over where their gear was. "If you can't get them by noon you'll go without lunch. You'll be tied to those posts and you will watch while I eat my lunch in front of you."

Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto frowned all at once, _"So that's why…"_

"You only have to get one bell," Kakashi informed as he dangled the two goals in front of them. "There are only two, so one of you will definitely be tied to a post by the end of the day. The person who doesn't take a bell will be disqualified for failing to complete the mission and get sent straight back to the academy. But then again… all three of you could cop it and fail. Are there any questions?" He got three hard stares from the trio, which was a response he had no quarrels with as he casually tied the two trinkets to his belt. "Very well; feel free to use any and all means to get the bells from me, weapons, jutsu, shuriken… because if you're not prepared to kill me you won't be able to take the bells."

"B-But sensei," Sakura said with concern lacing her voice, "Are you sure? Those weapons are really dangerous."

"Oh, I can handle it," Kakashi exclaimed before smiling when he saw the glares of determination being directed towards him from the team. "Okay. Now that you're all fired up, let's get going…" Upon seeing all three of them crouch, he then raised his hand and, after a few seconds of allowing the tension to build, dropped it to signal the start of the mission, "BEGIN!" They all broke off and vanished from sight.

OOO

The bell test started off well for the members of Team 7, particularly for the ever collected and experienced instructor Kakashi Hatake, who maintained his position in the middle of the clearing while surveying the surrounding field and woods for any signs of his students. He had given them the chance to put some distance between themselves and him, and now that they were hidden it was time for the real fun and games to start.

With the first twenty minutes passing without a sight or sound, the masked Jonin slipped his hands into his pockets and scanned the tree line of the forest to see if he could pick out any traces of the three.

If they were smart they would have hidden themselves well. The ultimate goal of the mission was obvious, so it was only logical that the teens would stay well within sight of their instructor but act smart enough to find a spot where they couldn't be seen in kind. After a lengthy silence and an even longer time spent searching, the Jonin nodded his head approvingly at the results he could make out thus far.

"_The main basic for a shinobi is that he or she will use their surroundings to their advantage, conceal their presence and hide effectively," _Kakashi recited as he glanced about, _"Nice. They're all hidden well."_

Unbeknownst to the team leader though, the rest of the squad had fanned out around the clearing and were watching him carefully from the shadows. Whilst Sasuke had perched himself in a tree on the edge of the clearing, Sakura had managed to squeeze herself underneath a bush on the far side and had gone completely prone. It was obvious that they had chosen their spots based on the feel for the environment and were determined not to give away their positions until they had figured out an effective strategy to use against their teacher.

The only problem at this point was that they had no idea what the man was capable of. His high rank and elite status was one thing, but neither of them had any idea how he fought, how fast he moved, how strong he was, or what kind of techniques he had. Hell, they didn't even know if they were really hiding themselves properly. Maybe he had already found them but was taking it easy on them so to give them a fighting chance.

These were questions without answers that continued to run rampant in their minds as both the Uchiha and his kunoichi teammate opted to keep themselves out of sight and just watch their instructor carefully… for the time being at least.

Naruto on the other hand had just up and vanished. No one, not even the teacher knew where he went… and that was the point.

The other male member of the squad's concern wasn't focused on the jinchuriki's situation though; it was focused on the man standing plain in sight with the goal hanging from his waistline.

"_He's standing in the center of the clearing with an open field all around him,"_ Sasuke thought as he scrutinized the Jonin's position and all aspects related to it. _"The fact that he hasn't moved since the outset of this test means that he has absolute confidence in his ability to be able to spot and counter any attack from any direction. I bet he's just waiting for one of us to break silence. So… factoring in all the negatives; his advantage: the view of the area, open ground, as well as his superior strength, skill, speed, and experience. Our advantage: we're hidden from sight and __**his**__ overconfidence."_

The Uchiha added all of this together to form one single conclusion; to wait until their sensei's guard dropped and attack him from behind. If he could blindside him, then he'd be able to jump through the opening.

It was all a waiting game now; a test of nerves to see who would break first.

Problem was though that the genius had overlooked one other important factor that, in all likelihood, would be able to swing this contest in their favor. He simply wasn't in the correct frame of mind to backtrack on his current string of thoughts and basically moved forward without any additional concern or feeling. All he was interested in was acquiring the bell. If he got _that_, he'd be one step closer to his ultimate goal.

Sakura on the other hand was sweating bullets over what to do. She laid there in the grass, her mind a whirl with what ifs and doubts. Though she had complete and utter faith in Sasuke's ability to handle the situation, on the other side of the spectrum there was _her_ and her debacle.

"_Where should I go? What should I do? I don't know?!"_ the girl thought as she swallowed nervously. _"Kakashi-sensei is in the middle of the clearing. He hasn't moved since the start of the exercise and isn't doing anything other than looking around. Is he going to move anytime soon? Is he going to try and look for us?"_

Perhaps. Maybe if the Jonin got impatient. Would he get mad if they didn't do anything through until the time ran out and fail them? God… this was so nerve rattling!

"_If he's going to move then maybe I should stay… b-but if I do… I won't be able to get a bell and I'll fail. Ohh… this is so hard. If I try to leave this spot he'll see me. If I stay I'll just waste time and fail. I… I need…"_ She looked around the trees anxiously. _"I need to find Sasuke-kun. He'll know what to do!"_

After half an hour of nothing but white noise and the sounds of birds singing, Kakashi, who had still yet to move even a single step, was now feeling a little bit concerned. It wasn't that he was bored, it was just that neither one of his students had decided to show themselves or had made any attempts to try and get to him. Perhaps they were smarter than he had earlier anticipated.

That or they were too scared to approach him.

"_Hmm… they haven't moved an inch,"_ Kakashi thought, eye shifting from right to left curiously. When several more minutes ticked by and not a sound was made, the Jonin relaxed himself and let out a weary sigh_. "Well then, if they won't make the first move then I will."_ With that said, the masked man then reached into his pouch, an action that caught the attentions of all those watching.

At first Sasuke and Sakura thought he was reaching for a blade or something he would use as a means of tracking them. This immediately had alarm bells ringing inside their heads as they quickly made guesses as to what the man was reaching for.

They then nearly face faulted all at once when they saw their instructor pull an orange book out of his pouch and flip it open; the cover reading _Icha Icha Paradise._

"Now… let's see…" Kakashi murmured as he looked down at the page he'd doggy-eared. "Ah yes."

"_You've got to be kidding me!"_ Sakura screeched in her head as she stared across at the instructor with a twitching eyebrow, _"Is he that confident that he can read while there's an exam going on?!"_

"_**Cha! Take this seriously you damn Cyclops!"**_ _Inner_ Sakura shouted vehemently. Her more composed counterpart could only shake her head in dismay and continue watching from a distance as the man giggled perversely over his novel.

Sasuke on the other hand, who had managed to recover from the shock, took note of the development and quietly reached into his pouch behind him with both hands. His glare tightened as he watched the man turn his back to him and continue running through the pages. Upon considering the situation, the distance to target and the time it would take for his weapons to reach, the Uchiha smirked.

"_An opening!"_ Drawing the blades, he pulled them back and in one smooth motion, chucked them, _"Finally!"_

His blades and stars zipped through the air, separating in flight before converging on the Jonin's back. In two seconds flat they reached their target and, much to the Genin's shock, they hit home. His success was accompanied by a surprised gasp from the Jonin and his body being thrown forward by all of the blades burying into his spine. His whole form went limp as it began to fall, blood trailing from the entry wounds.

"_H-He got hit!"_ Sakura thought in alarm.

The Uchiha frowned, watching the body fall for the longest second he'd ever experienced before suddenly seeing it burst into a white cloud of smoke. The struck individual then revealed himself to be nothing more than a log impaled with several throwing knives, a sight that startled all of the teens in the area.

"_Damn it!"_ Sasuke cursed and immediately took off running, bursting out of his hiding place and into the woods. _"Kawarimi! So it WAS a trap! He purposefully turned his back to the tree line I was hiding in to create an opening and waited for one of us to attack! Shit! Now he knows where I am!"_

Meanwhile, in the forest across the clearing, in a tree overlooking the entire field, a familiar eye could be seen staring out from the shadows in the direction the shuriken had been thrown from. Perched on the branch of a larch, the face of Kakashi Hatake then poked into view as he followed the trail left behind by his target, _"So there he is."_

Realizing that her sensei had moved, Sakura seized the opportunity presented and quickly made a beeline out from her hiding place. She dashed through the woods towards where the knives had been thrown, wondering whether it had been Sasuke or Naruto that tried to take out their instructor. Whether it was one or the other she didn't care, all she hoped was that Kakashi hadn't gotten to them first.

"_I'll bet it was Sasuke-kun!"_ Sakura thought desperately as she leapt through the trees, _"My gut's telling me that it was! I hope sensei hasn't got-no! That would never happen! Not to hi-"_ The girl's thoughts were then cut off when she suddenly felt something clamp across her mouth and, giving a startled yelp, was forcefully whipped around the tall oak she was just about to pass.

Silenced by the hand over her gob, the pink haired girl tensed up when she felt her body press up against that of another, her eyes widening in horror and mind immediately racing.

Shit! Was it Kakashi? No. It couldn't be! There's no way he could have gotten to her so quickly. He was after whoever threw those knives. Trembling nervously, Sakura felt the arm around her stomach tighten and, still unable to speak, looked over her shoulder to whoever it was that had managed to catch her in mid-jump.

Her heart skipped a beat when she saw that it was Naruto who was glaring over his shoulder through the thick brush they were now concealed behind.

"_N-Naruto… what?"_ the kunoichi thought, her mouth attempting to verbally address her question before she suddenly saw his other hand pop up in front of her. Confused, she looked down at it and saw that it was pointing in the direction she had been running in, and quickly followed it. When Sakura glanced through the gap in the leaves and branches, she saw the all too familiar form of their teacher land on a tree several meters away.

Upon stopping, the masked Jonin looked around a few times, as if searching for something. After several seconds and nothing, the man then focused his attention back onto his previous task and moved on, disappearing in a shunshin.

"_H-He was looking for me?" _Sakura felt a river of relief flood through her,_ "Shit. That was close."_

"He's good," Naruto whispered, his hot breath hitting the girl's neck and sending a chill up her spine. When Sakura's eyes turned to the boy and she saw him still staring off into the forest their instructor had disappeared to, he then slowly relinquished his hand from the kunoichi's mouth and continued. "I've never seen anyone move that fast before. Kakashi-sensei was able to pop a _Kawarimi_ right in front of us just before the shuriken hit him. We don't stand a chance by ourselves."

Sakura blinked as she gazed up into the serious expression of the jinchuriki as he spoke and gulped when he turned to her. Feeling a bit of heat come to her cheeks the girl stared back at him nervously. "Th-Then how are we going to get the bells from him? If he's so fast, then wh-" The girl stopped when she remembered why she had been running in the first place and snapped in the direction Kakashi had gone, "Oh no! Sasuke-kun!"

"It's okay, Sakura-chan," Naruto exclaimed, getting the girl to look at him again to see him smirk, "I've got it covered…"

OOO

After making his way into another clearing further away, Sasuke took the time to survey his surroundings before coming to a complete stop. His glare hardening as he stared ahead of him, the boy maintained his position firmly as a familiar presence suddenly washed over him. He didn't even bother to look behind him because he knew he'd been found out.

"That was a good move back there, Sasuke-kun. But you were too impatient and attacked before fully considering the possibility of a trap, and thus fell for an obvious setup," the voice of his more than lax teacher came drifting over to him through the air.

As a gentle breeze blew leaves into the vicinity, the raven haired boy furrowed his brow under his fluttering bangs and lowered his head. "I should have seen that coming from a mile away. But I guess it's too late for any do-overs. You've got me."

"Indeed I have," the Jonin chuckled while leaning against the solitary tree he was standing by, book in hand and nose buried in it. After flipping to the next page, the silver haired man then pushed himself off and strolled forward, stopping till he was face to face with his student when he finally decided to turn around. "So, I'm facing down a member of the village's most powerful clan, the _Uchiha Clan_. This could be interesting…"

Teacher and subordinate glared across at one another intently, the atmosphere around them quickly growing thick with hostility as they sized each other up. In their current positions, the Uchiha was clearly being the one put under the most pressure, as he realized he was up against a man who was not only quick on the draw, but deceptively powerful and intelligent. It became painfully obvious to him why their teacher was considered an elite Jonin in the first place.

He definitely possessed the skills to back up his more than idiotic behavior and laidback attitude.

Sasuke lowered his head as his fists clenched, another breeze hitting the pair as the silence dragged on.

Then… it happened!

The boy crouched and immediately chucked a barrage of shuriken at the Jonin, who leapt to the side just in time to dodge.

"Such obvious attacks won't work on me," Kakashi informed, almost missing the sound of a rope snapping. As he skidded along the ground, he glanced over his shoulder, "A trap?" He then sprang backwards, barely avoiding a hail of kunai that had been attached to a launcher hidden in the nearby shrubbery. The Jonin looked up at the tree that got hit by the barrage in surprise as he slid to a stop, only to look behind him when Sasuke appeared, a kick flying in his direction. _"What?"_

When the Uchiha kicked he struck with a full swing, only to have his instructor block the blow with his arm. When he saw the Jonin grab his ankle to stop him, the boy then swung in with a right overhand, which hit his instructor's hand when it shot up to stop him. They were good blows, precise and heavy, but Sasuke wasn't done yet. The boy quickly twisted his body downwards, swinging his other free leg over for a hit straight down onto his teacher's cranium, but Kakashi managed to cross his arms overhead to block, inadvertently opening up his midsection.

Sasuke smirked as he swung down, his left hand coming down and fingers stretching out.

Kakashi's gaze widened when he saw the boy making another move he never expected him to, _"Damn!"_

The sound of a bell tinkling rang out, a split second before the Jonin leapt back in lightning fast time to avoid a follow-through. Sliding across the ground, Kakashi stopped to see Sasuke land and come to a crouching stop too, both glaring hard at each other.

"_This kid is fierce. I didn't even have time to read Icha Icha Paradise," _the Jonin thought, watching as the Uchiha gritted his teeth back at him. After a minute or so longer of staring, Kakashi then gave an eye smile and rose up to full height. "Well, I'll admit that you're different from the other two." Opening his eye up again, he looked across at his student just in time to see the boy start flipping through hand seals and jumped in alarm when he recognized the seal he stopped on, "Wait a second, a Genin shouldn't…"

"_**Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!"**__ (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)_

A torrent of fire then shot forth from Sasuke's mouth, consuming the Jonin in a great ball of fire that engulfed the entire area in front of the Genin. The prodigy torched both the ground and airspace, making sure that his opponent got hit good before disengaging from the technique and watching the blaze die down. A smoldering crater emerged from the smoke shortly afterwards, but the Uchiha was startled when he saw that his opponent was no longer there and began looking around wildly.

"_He's gone!"_ Sasuke thought, glancing up, _"In the air? No? From the sides? Where?"_

"MOVE!" a voice shouted before the Uchiha was suddenly tackled by something orange and fast-moving.

Sasuke looked down with a start, where he saw Naruto had rammed into him from the side and blasted him off his feet. When he did, he also saw a hand jut out from the ground where he had been standing a second earlier, which aimed to grab but ended up missing. It was then the Uchiha realized what must have happened and gritted his teeth, _"Holy sh-… he went underground?!"_ After being thrown back both he and Naruto landed and slid to a stop, spinning around to see Kakashi jump out of the earth.

The Jonin stood before them and glared, seeing Naruto now standing beside Sasuke and both looking ready to fight.

"I was wondering when you were going to show up, Naruto-kun," Kakashi exclaimed while giving the boy an eye smile, "Nice save."

Sweating a bit, the raven haired boy frowned. "Yeah, thanks dobe," Sasuke muttered, earning a glare and a tick mark from the jinchuriki.

"Oh. Yeah. You're welcome, you bastard," the blonde growled. The guy really knew how to show his appreciation to someone who just saved his skin. "Next time I'll just sit back and watch him drag you under."

Kakashi continued to smile pleasantly as he looked between the both of them. "Now that the two of you are here, I think now is as good a time as any to restrain you." He began marching forward.

Naruto jumped in front of Sasuke and flipped through hand seals of his own, startling the Jonin at the technique because he'd never seen that kind of combination before. After finishing on Dog, Naruto brought the fist he'd made outward trailing white smoke, which he then opened up and, in a matter of seconds, flooded the place with white and black clouds.

"_**Futon: Oroshi!"**_ _(Wind Release: Wind Blowing Down from the Mountains)_

The white mass of smoke exploded outwards, hitting Kakashi full on and sending him sliding back under the force of hurricane like winds. He shielded himself against the blasts of dust, debris and clouds, and managed to stop himself from hitting the tree line. The Jonin then looked up in astonishment, wondering how the hell Naruto knew such a technique, but was unable to focus due to being consumed in dark storm clouds and rushing gales. Looking around, the man saw nothing black and white plumes going everywhere, filling up the sky and blocking out the sun high above.

From a distance, it looked like an atomic bomb in both form and scale had just gone off as rings of grayscale smoke choked the entire forest.

Clicking his tongue, Kakashi flipped through his own hand seals. "I'll admit that was a good one. _**Futon: Daitoppa!**_" _(Wind Release: Great Breakthrough) _A massive gale of wind then exploded off of his body, clashing with Naruto's technique and forcefully parting the clouds. It was a fight which ended quickly with the white and black smoke dissipating on the wind as Kakashi's jutsu fanned outwards.

Within moments the haze dissipated, allowing the Jonin a clear view of the whole field.

As he expected, both Naruto and Sasuke were gone, having left in the chaos brought on by the jinchuriki. This had the silver haired man scratch his head and breathe a sigh of exhaustion.

"Boy, I didn't expect for the test to go _this_ far… or for them to do this well. I'm surprised," he exclaimed in an amazed tone of voice. _"Clearly the most competent ones have shown a lot of skill and grit… but it'll take more than brute force to overwhelm me."_ Slipping his hands into his pockets, the Jonin then looked off to the side with a careless expression. "Now let's see… where would they have gone?"

OOO

Sasuke wasn't sure if he'd ever run that fast in his life. But as soon as Naruto popped that massive smoke screen, whatever the hell it was, both of them had high-tailed it out of there before their instructor could even get a bead on them. It had helped a lot that the blonde's technique produced such strong winds it gave them a boost out of the area, but the jutsu was supposed to be a stalling one, and apparently an effective one.

Nevertheless, after several minutes of hard sprinting and, by the Uchiha's estimate, after putting several miles distance between them and their teacher, the pair soon found themselves reunited with Sakura and standing in some patch of grass somewhere in the middle of the forest.

Reunited, they all stood around in the one area doing their own things. While Sasuke was catching his breath, Sakura was fussing over him and Naruto was standing by a tree glaring out into the woods. His ears and eyes were twitching to every sight and sound, but not sensing their teacher anywhere near there, he was quick to calm.

Managing to recover, the Uchiha looked up at the jinchuriki with a glare, "Why the hell did you jump in like that you idiot? I nearly had him!"

"Yeah, I'm sure you did," Naruto replied, glancing back at the boy with a glare of his own. "You were a second away from being pulled straight into the ground and potentially killed. Believe it. I was watching you the entire time."

Jaw tightening, Sasuke wanted so badly to have an argument with his class rival. However, with them now back in hiding and with the events of his battle with Kakashi still fresh in his mind, the raven haired boy managed to quell any debatable tendencies and looked away. Sakura watched the teen calm himself and step away, hands in his pockets and appearing frustrated.

After a few moments of silence, the kunoichi smiled towards the Uchiha and spoke up, "L-Listen Sasuke-kun, there's no need to push ourselves. We can always try again. Let's just rest for a moment and take things slowly. I'm sure that you want to have another shot at those bells before the time runs out."

"Don't worry about me. I'm far beyond giving up at this point," Sasuke replied, still looking away with his usual cold demeanor in play. "When I fought him I was able to touch it. Next time, for sure, I'll get one…"

"No you won't," Naruto shot back immediately.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed and he quickly turned on the jinchuriki. "How do you know?"

The blonde rounded on him just as he did, "Because I know. On your own, as you are now, you don't have a hope in hell of getting one of those bells." He approached the Uchiha, his expression all serious as he fell into full tirade mode. "He's faster than you are, stronger than you are, has better reflexes, his timing is better, and if his age and ninja-know-how means anything he's also smarter than you. I've been watching him closely the entire time, how he held the center field, how he baited you, chased after you, and cornered you. Hell, he nearly caught Sakura-chan just from chasing after _you_." Naruto pointed towards the girl who shrunk away when she was placed under the spotlight. "Not even I'm stupid enough to challenge someone like that."

Sasuke turned to face the boy fully. "It's not like you weren't thinking about going after him too, dobe."

The jinchuriki smirked and gave him a nod. "I'm not going to lie; I was tempted to," he replied with a deep frown. "But he's a Jonin. Get it? _Jonin_! That's one step down from Kage and that means he's super tough."

Sakura, looking between both the irate Sasuke and the equally irate Naruto nervously, gulped and panned back towards the jinchuriki anxiously. Though she had expected her blonde teammate to be one of the boys from their graduating group who would've been more than willing to take their instructor on one on one, apparently he wasn't. In fact, Naruto was vehemently jousting against the idea of fighting their teacher, and that was saying something that even the normally solitary Sasuke was willing to listen to.

Something about the energetic boy's instincts was telling her that the man that was testing their group had even the notorious prankster of their village who wasn't afraid to mess with anyone shaking in his boots. This was something to take to heart.

"H-He's really that strong?" the kunoichi asked.

"You saw him yourself, Sakura-chan," Naruto murmured, looking back at her gravely. "How he reacted, how he played, and how he came after us. I've never seen anyone in the village move like that before. I'm pretty sure not even Iruka-sensei can touch the level this guy's at."

This had both Sasuke and Sakura look at the jinchuriki incredulously, before turning away to reconsider their chances.

From that point onwards, it seemed that the more they thought about the exercise given to them, the more impossible the challenge of getting the bells became. Sasuke admitted he'd been tricked, baited, lured out, and nearly beaten had it not been for Naruto's timely intervention. Even Sakura had to thank Naruto for the save.

The fact was she had been so focused on finding Sasuke that she jumped out without thinking and inadvertently nearly ended up as the Jonin's first kill. That thought gave the girl a sickly feeling that had her look down at the floor grimly.

After several minutes of silence in which all members of the team meditated on the details of the challenge, they then looked towards each other quietly with varying looks of doubt drawn across each of their respective faces.

"This is impossible… isn't it?" Sakura asked, glancing hopefully towards the Uchiha.

Sasuke, having been the first one most adamant about acquiring a bell and passing this absurd test, stepped forward. With a battle hardened expression in play, he confronted the other two and looked between them considerately. First looking towards the kunoichi, he then looked towards Naruto who had just as serious a look in play and was staring back at him with a telltale glint in his eyes.

Seconds into the silence, the Uchiha then furrowed his brow and smiled, "Not unless we work together."

Sakura turned with a start while a smirk crossed Naruto's face. The kunoichi gazed across at the raven haired boy fearfully, "W-Work together? But… what about the bells?"

"What about them?"

"Th-There are only two of them? Aren't you worried about not getting one?"

"It doesn't matter," Sasuke replied before panning towards his class rival, "What matters is getting the bells. That's our goal. But we're not going to do it on our own, right dobe?"

The blonde chuckled, "Now you're talking, teme." The jinchuriki smirked at the confused Sakura with an expression conveying a restored confidence, one which seemed to have been lost when the three of them reunited not too long ago. "The three of us are going to get the bells together. On our own we don't stand a chance, but if we work together…"

"I-It just… might… work," Sakura mumbled to herself. Her eyes shifted wearily as she thought about what the team was saying. When she ran the idea several times in her head and considered their numbers, as well as their collective skills and abilities, the girl then clenched her fist and looked back up. A smile appeared on her face, "Yeah. W-We can do it! We can absolutely do it, CHA!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the girl's sudden exclamation, which the kunoichi blushed at before averting her gaze. _"I think I've found something I have in common with her, dattebayo."_ Chuckling, the jinchuriki then focused on Sasuke. "I don't know. What do you think?"

"Probably the same thing you're thinking right now," the Uchiha replied and looked around as they all gathered in the center. Pulling his hands out of his pockets, the raven haired teen smirked, "We were put into a team for a reason."

"Working together, we're a lot stronger," Naruto asserted.

"There are only two bells. But together, the three of us are one, right?" Sakura asked, switching between the two quickly. She saw them nod towards her approvingly, especially the blonde whose grin just kept on growing. Nodding as well, the girl raised her fists up, "Okay! Then let's do it!"

"My, aren't you three getting along."

Startled, the trio whirled around and looked straight up towards the canopy of the trees, where they saw their masked instructor crouching low on a high branch and looking down at them from over his book. Expressions changing from shocked to serious, the entire squad jumped back and dropped into fighting stances, ready to take the man on at a moment's notice.

As soon as he saw them take defensive measures, Kakashi clapped his book shut. "So… you were saying about taking me on together? As a team, right?"

Naruto, gritting his teeth, glared back at the Jonin, "Yeah! That's right!"

Giving a chuckle, the masked cyclops stood up to full height and slipped a hand into his pocket. "Very well. If that's how it's going to be."

Looking alarmed, Sasuke then glanced across at the other two, "We've got to move! Naruto, give us cover! Me and Sakura will swing around and take him on both sides! We'll box him in!"

The two of them nodded, with the jinchuriki reaching into his pouch quickly, "Right!"

He pulled out a smoke pellet, but the moment he began bringing his arm back around, he felt a firm hand suddenly grab his wrist from behind before suddenly locking his arm directly behind his head, which was also grabbed roughly. The jinchuriki stopped dead with a shocked look on his face as his eyes glanced around, where he saw the Jonin standing right behind him. It took them a second, but eventually Sasuke and Sakura also noticed their instructor standing in their midst and jerked away in shock, the latter looking up at the adult before glancing towards the tree where he had once been standing.

"H-How?" Sakura's eyes darted back to their instructor, "How did he do that?"

"_So fast,"_ Naruto thought, stunned, tugging against the man's grip but finding he was unable to move.

Again, how the hell did he do that?

Kakashi smiled as he gazed down at the blonde he now had at his mercy, who was struggling to get out of the headlock, "You shouldn't have taken your eyes off me. That was your mistake." He glanced around at the other two, where he then saw both Sasuke and Sakura reach for their holsters and draw their kunai. They then took offensive stances, ready to attack to free Naruto from the man's grip. "So that's your answer, is it?"

The three braced themselves, ready for the next move. Even though Naruto was being held he was pretty sure he could get out. Even Sasuke was confident he could hit his target at this range, as was Sakura. However, when all of them prepared themselves to take action against the masked Jonin standing within range of them, Kakashi then nodded his head and gave him his trademark eye smile.

"You pass."

The three Genin all blinked when they heard that.

Sasuke and Sakura ended up staring at the man a little bit flabbergasted whereas Naruto just stared ahead of him with wide eyes. It was after the news finally settled into them that the Jonin released the blonde from his grip and allowed him to fall back into line with the other two, who stood up out of their stances and looked at the man attentively.

"Huh?" Sakura asked, conveying the same thought that the other two were having.

"That's it. You pass," Kakashi said with more cheeriness in his voice.

"Pass? But why?" the kunoichi asked, this time using words instead of dull exclamations.

"Simply put, you guys are the first," the Jonin continued without skipping a beat, stepping back and slipping his hands into his pockets.

"First? First for what?" Naruto asked.

"What I mean is that you guys are the first team I've ever tested who were able to set aside your personal interests and resolved to work together to complete a task that would have otherwise been impossible to do on your own," Kakashi exclaimed with an affirmative head nod, "Even if it meant that one of you would fail, in the end you were willing to work as a group to see it through the rest of the way. Everyone else would have continued blindly until the final bell fighting on their own without even sparing a second thought to their teammates. You guys though… you really came along."

The man walked out a little, taking on a faraway look as his team stared up at him intently. As confusing as the results were to them at first, things shortly thereafter started falling into place.

"While individual strength is important for a shinobi, what's even more important is teamwork. Everyone in this village knows this. Ninjas are also required to think beyond the normal. Look underneath the underneath. In this world, it is said that those who break the rules and codes of a ninja are called trash," Kakashi recited, before looking back at them and giving an eye smile. "But you know what?" He pulled out a familiar wrapped leaf from his pocket and tossed it up and down in his hand, with Sasuke blinking in surprise and checking his pocket for the forest food Naruto had given to both him and Sakura earlier that day. All of them then looked at their instructor in astonishment. "Those who don't take care of their comrades are even worse than trash."

At this, the sun seemed to shine a little more brightly through the trees, and the small clearing they were standing in lit up in the noon sun. The warmth that flooded the area from the brilliant rays filled the team's hearts with triumph and understanding, with Sasuke giving an approving smile and Sakura giggling in excitement. Naruto on the other hand was gazing up at their teacher admirably, taking the words he'd spoken to heart with shimmering eyes.

"_He's so cool,"_ the jinchuriki thought.

With that said and done, the Jonin handed back the food to Sasuke before patting him, Sakura and Naruto on the head, "The training ends here. Everybody passes. Team 7 will start its first real missions tomorrow morning." He saw them all nod at the exact same time, to which he smiled warmly at them and slipped his hands into his pockets. "Meet up at this same training field at seven o'clock sharp over at the stumps. Great work you guys."

Once that announcement was made the trio and their teacher then began heading off, leaving the clearing in the woods well behind. When they arrived at the training pillars to collect their gear, Naruto was stopped by his teammates walking up to him and holding out two boxes. The jinchuriki looked between the two containers in confusion before glancing up at his friends, whom he could see were smiling at him and looking away respectively.

"This is for earlier, Naruto," Sakura exclaimed happily, thrusting the box further out.

The blonde recoiled a little in surprise, "Huh? R-Really?"

"Yeah. I mean… we were starving today and you gave us food. It only makes sense that we should return the favor," Sakura replied sincerely with the brightest of smiles. The Uchiha however maintained radio silence and just held out his thing with his gaze continually averted. Even though both of them had come to the same gesture of good faith at the exact same time, clearly they both had different ways of conveying their gratitude.

Feeling his stomach grumble, Naruto glanced down at himself apprehensively to listen to it voice its complaints before beaming back up at his teammates. He took their bento boxes and bowed to them gratefully, "Thanks so much, Sakura-chan. Sasuke."

The two smiled back at him, glad to see that he was satisfied.

Soon after that, with bags on their backs and a spring in their step, side by side with their teacher, the squad walked back to the village. Allowing the youngsters to get a little further ahead, the Jonin gazed at them all with an approving smile, watching as Naruto and Sakura chatted and Sasuke just listened in with an open ear.

"_I have a feeling that things are about to get a whole lot more interesting around here,"_ Kakashi thought, above everything else looking forward to the festivities tomorrow.

OOO

**That night…**

On the road leading across the Land of Fire away from _Konohagakure_, locked inside a horse-drawn wagon and guarded by several armed Chunin, the three kunoichi that had been involved in the _Scroll of Seals_ incident were currently being escorted to _Konoha's Strict Correctional Facility_. Having no further need for them and feeling that they'd spent enough time in the village's dungeons; the officials had quickly decided to move them out for an extended sentence.

After aiding a now dismissed Konoha shinobi in the theft of an important historical and potentially dangerous artifact, it was no surprise they were being moved to their main holding facility for criminals. Even if their threat to the village was minimal, they were still too troublesome to keep an eye on, so you could say those that had been charged with their imprisonment had become fed up with looking after them. This was how poor Noriko, Kureha and Shuko took their dismissal from the underground cells and their processing by guarded transport. The leaf ninja were taking no more chances with them.

"This stinks," Kureha sulked from her spot against the walls, looking around at all the seals keeping them locked up. The fact that they were still dressed in their shinobi garb but had their hands cuffed was another thing worth noting. They were probably going to have their clothes changed at the facility. "I'm getting sick and tired of getting my ass kicked by that blonde haired kid."

"Yeah well… let's just be grateful that he didn't kill us for trying to take out our frustrations on him," Shuko spoke up, pulling her legs up as she thought back on their defeats. "If it were anybody else, they would've killed us on the spot for trying to take their life. I'm just thankful that our opponent was merciful and that I'm still breathing right now."

Noriko, their leader who was still showing some signs of her defeat at the hands of the boy's companion, huffed and glared towards one of the corners of their moving carriage. The bumps in the road were accentuated by every rattle and shake of the wooden hull, which didn't exactly make their ride comfortable. "You guys may be happy, but I'm sure as hell not. That mission was a complete fuck up. I've never felt so weak before in my life."

Kureha sighed, "That's because we spent all of our time in prison lounging about and letting our skills deteriorate. We could've at least done some training and kept up our strength."

"Well… if that's how you feel," Noriko looked back up at them, "The moment we get dropped off at prison, I'm going to start training from scratch and hitting the courtyard. There's no way I'm going to let myself get beaten again."

"B-But," Shuko looked across in surprise at the woman's assertive tone, "Wouldn't that be kind of redundant in our case? To do any kind of worthwhile training we'd need to use chakra, wouldn't we? And… well…" She pointed around them at the seals on the walls, "It's not like our hosts are going to be letting us have those kinds of privileges in our cells, are they?"

"We don't need chakra to get stronger," Noriko said with a determined smirk. "All we need are our bodies. If we strengthen our bodies and strengthen our taijutsu, then we can strengthen our ability to use chakra. It's how the whole spiritual and physical material works." She looked away again, still holding that smile of hers as her companions looked at her attentively. When they saw her lower her gaze, her voice softened. "That Naruto kid… when he beat us the first time, all he used was taijutsu and cheap tricks on us. Well… if he can be strong just using his body, then we can to." Her fists clenched tightly in memory of the fight and the kind of battle they'd just been involved in. "I won't be beaten again… that I can promise you."

Realizing that their leader had had some kind of sense knocked back into her, both Kureha and Shuko looked at each other momentarily and smiled proudly.

Honestly; getting your butt handed to you by a child really did open your eyes to the bigger picture. Anybody who was anybody could win a fight. They just needed to become that anybody in order to do so. Whether Noriko was determined not to get beaten by the same person again or not was unclear, but what was clear was her resolve to never get caught off guard in a one-on-one battle again.

Before their enlightening conversation could go any further however, loud explosions and blasts from outside rattled their moving prison. Their cart shaking violently, with flashes of light outside pouring in, the three kunoichi looked around with a start and held their ground firmly. Again and again their wagon was rocked by repeated concussive forces, the Chunin guards outside yelling out in panic and moving quickly to repel the sudden attack. When their voices fell silent, so did the commotion.

Panting heavily, the three kunoichi looked around before a panicking Shuko glanced towards their leader, who was now on her feet.

"W-What's going on?"

"Shh!" Noriko responded, raising her hands.

Eyes turning towards the door of the cart, they suddenly heard the sound of metal being bent and snapping. Several seconds later, the seal to their now stationary wagon was suddenly thrown open, and the light of a fire outside lit up their dark chamber. Blinking away the glare, all three kunoichi got to their feet and backed away when they saw the silhouette of a tall man with spiky hair step into their midst.

It didn't escape their notice that their Konoha escort was being held captive outside, trapped inside of slabs of rock, with two other people guarding over them; one a short girl with long spiky hair, and another huge man with a similar haircut and a massive build.

The jail breaker the kunoichi were confronted with was a tall individual, with long, spiky orange hair, wearing a long blue shirt, pants, a white vest, and two gauntlets on either arm. His piercing blue eyes landed on the women, whom also noticed he was wearing a headband with no village symbol on it. It was just a plain plate.

In fact, looking around at all three individuals dressed in matching clothing but different colors, all of them had headbands with no symbols on them. Weird.

The petite woman guarding over the trapped and unconscious Konoha shinobi outside grinned as she looked into the carriage. "So who do we have this time, Ishidate? Any big fish?"

"No. Just some tiny shrimp. Nothing to get excited about," the man named Ishidate replied in a suave voice and a disappointed sigh at the end. He shook his head at the three women glaring at him. "It's a real shame, because I was hoping for someone more important… or at least someone who would give me a challenge."

Noriko gritted her teeth at the man speaking in such a condescending tone towards them and snapped, "Who the hell are you?"

The rogue ninja glanced at her uninterestingly and smirked, "Me? Well… to you little miss, you can just call me the _Big Bad Wolf_." He then raised his right fist and flashed them his arm brace, an orange eye appearing across the back of his hand and sending chills down the trio's backs. The gauntlet he was wearing was made of stone, and judging from the chakra glowing through the cracks, it didn't look too friendly. "Now then; if I'm not mistaken you three are headed off to prison."

Kureha frowned. "Why do you ask? Is this some kind of breakout?"

"Not exactly," Ishidate grinned menacingly despite his cool visage. "Think of it as… the changing of the guard. We're simply taking you out of the hands of these hidden leaf shinobi and moving you to a newer, much cleaner facility where you will be spending the remainder of your life sentences in peace. I promise; you three are going to love the lavish accommodations our boss has reserved for you."

From the tone of his voice, that didn't sound so promising…

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

* * *

**Author's Note:** And that's another chapter.

I played this one out like in the one in canon, but again I changed it based on the differences in my story and the changes in Naruto's character.

I wrote the whole Naruto and Sakura situation around the idea I got from canon. When Sasuke shot down Sakura in the the original story for making fun of Naruto's situation of having no parents, she had time to think a little on how she treated Naruto and thus led into the not too stable bond as a group they had in the test afterwards. After getting some sense smacked into her by Tayuya in this story however, she opens up a little bit more, and decides to make up with Naruto and start out fresh.

Which leads into the next point. In a way, Naruto is the glue that holds the team together. He's clearly the type who's able to connect with others, never lets anything get him down, doesn't hold any grudges or negative feelings, and can move mountains with his actions (metaphorically speaking), and inadvertendly get his friends to see the errors behind their own actions and work things out a lot faster than would have happened in the original series. They are able to grow and change as a group by following Naruto's example, which shows how Naruto affects the people around him. However, they still have their limits as a group. Kakashi was still able to overwhelm them despite their resolve, but nevertheless acknowledged their strengths.

I hope you guys are looking forward to the next chapter. I've got a little surprise in store for you all.


	9. A Potentially Fatal Encounter

**NARUTO**

**Drifting**

_A Potentially Fatal Encounter_

The first mission that the newly formed group known as Team 7 embarked upon the day following their survival test was perhaps one of the dullest assignments they could have ever taken. As they would later learn that same morning after meeting up with their team leader Kakashi was that the man had failed quite a few teams in the past, all because they were unable to pass his ridiculously deceptive bell exercise. Thing is, with this lack of experience in coaching youngsters in the field due to taking on none under his command for the past few years, it only made sense that the Jonin would pick the easiest, most laidback mission from the assortment of D-Rank assignments available to them and set their gears in motion.

What came immediately after receiving their scroll at the Hokage tower were two hours of wrist cranking, spirit crushing monotony involving the three kids painting an old man's fence. In reality, the property was in no sense small. It was bloody massive. The whole barrier, which had recently been redone by another Konoha Genin team, needed a new paintjob, and who better to spearhead that project then the recently graduated and eager members of Kakashi's squad, all of whom had been expecting something… well… more-ish.

While their Jonin instructor watched them from a nearby tree reading the same orange book Naruto and the others had seen him bring out a couple times before, the trio went about completing their given task in their own unique ways.

Sakura was the most thorough of the three; picking her third of the wall and using a repetitive, up-and-down technique that basically got her job done well and fast. Sasuke, bored as ever, had one hand in his pocket the entire time and another holding his brush while he did a more relaxed job at a more labored pace. And Naruto, exuberant as ever, just lathered his sections with as much coating as he could, making a game out of it by painting odd pictures first before going over them to cover up his graffiti.

He got his side done first, followed by Sakura, both of whom then proceeded to help Sasuke out with his because the guy was taking it easy. In the end though, the one who ended up covered in the most paint from splattering it all over himself was Naruto. He certainly made it clear to the world he'd had as much fun as possible on his first D-Rank mission ever when they went back to the Hokage tower to hand in their report.

The second mission for the day then saw the youngsters chopping wood at the local lumberjacks. Once again Kakashi left them to their own devices, moved out of the vicinity and watched his team from the sidelines as each got handed an axe and were positioned at an individual station. For the next couple hours after that the group proceeded to split logs in two one after the other, which would then be transported to other stores by the tradesmen.

This job really highlighted some important aspects about their squad. While the previous task of fence painting showed that a single job could be divided up equally between the three of them, this one was more of a spotlight towards their stamina and physical fitness levels.

Obviously the one who did the most daily exercise out of all of them was Naruto, who went plowing through logs at such a speed that by the end of the shift he'd pretty much split enough logs for three shipments. Sasuke came in second in this race, working up a sweat in the process and needing to towel down afterwards, a material that Sakura was all too happy to provide as she watched with fluttery eyes as the boy wiped his face and neck under the rays of sun. Then, of course, the one who was the most exhausted at the end was the kunoichi herself, who probably didn't do as much moving around as the other two as evident by how she collapsed by her chopping stump about halfway through for a break.

The team's third and final job for that day came in helping out in the storage area for a supermarket. Basically what the group had to do was move checked supplies from the main building into one of the many sheds out back. They would then have to stack the boxes up nicely to make sure that all of the marked goods could fit into it and that the area wouldn't be cluttered with unorganized material. The three youngsters got off to a strong start with Kakashi supervising them. He watched them closely as they moved from the building to the shed one by one, with the pile of boxes in the unit steadily filling with every trip they made.

It was pretty much business as usual for the most part. Unfortunately, while arranging stuff, Naruto unwittingly boxed himself in and ended up getting trapped behind a wall of crates.

Sasuke and Sakura watched snickering from the entrance as Naruto banged away at the walls of boxes surrounding him, "Help! I'm stuck! Guys! Let me out!"

"How the heck did you manage that, dobe?" Sasuke asked with amusement. The pink haired kunoichi beside him, unable to contain herself any longer, burst out laughing.

"I don't know teme! Just get me out of here already!"

"Only you'd ever mess up on a D-Ranked assignment, Naruto," Sakura giggled, wiping away tears of delight as the boy in orange continued to try and push his way out. Unfortunately a heavy box up top kept the rest in place, making any and all efforts to try and free himself futile. "Just relax and pull yourself together."

"I'm as pulled together as I can be, Sakura-chan! Naruto want out!"

Kakashi, book in hand, strolled over to the team with a big smile on his masked face. While it was true he found the situation thoroughly amusing himself, unfortunately he had his own job to do. His responsibilities as team leader and instructor to these youngsters meant he had to be the mature one here, and that meant cutting their fun short before they went into overtime. "Come on guys; no teammate left behind, remember?"

Upon snapping Sasuke and Sakura out of their fits of merriment, the two then moved forward and helped pull the crates away, allowing Naruto room to climb over and out of his would-be prison.

That last mission was probably the most entertaining of the lot, with everyone except Naruto getting their good eight chuckles out of it. In the end the team was pulled aside by their instructor, congratulated for a day's worth of work well done, and after handing in the last of their reports, were then dismissed with pay in hand. Like before, they were instructed to meet up at the same time tomorrow on the training field for another day of the same thing.

Though the group started out expecting to do more in terms of assignment quality, like perhaps jobs of the heroic kind that required them to step outside of the village and outside of their comfort zones, the group eventually came to terms with the idea that they would probably be doing a few more of these tedious chores before they were eventually _allowed_ to move into something more challenging.

They were content with it at first, until the process of performing tedious jobs, otherwise known as D-Rank missions day after day, started to become irritable…

OOO

**A week later…**

A series of loud thumps rang out throughout training ground three as a certain two Genin were going through the usual spiel of intense training. Wielding a pair of wooden blockers on either arm, Naruto held a firm stance as he moved quickly around the clearing in circles while taking hit after hit from an aggressively pursuing Tayuya, giving her a moving target to engage.

Contrary to what others may be thinking, this was a tough exercise for both parties. While it was true the jinchuriki was setting the pace for his partner by holding the wooden pads, he was also using the opportunity to work on his rhythm, timing, and feel for the distance between himself and his opponent. This went double for Tayuya, who not only had to keep pace with him and throw out the combinations he was calling her to throw; she was also being run into the ground and having her timing, as well as her reflexes, tested to their fullest. The training was damn near exhausting, even though this was a common practice for both, because it wasn't that easy to get used to. Whenever they got stronger, they always upped the pace that much more, making every session harder than the last.

Sweating bullets, Tayuya drove home a series of straights mixed in with hooks and elbows, before spinning on the spot and firing off a back kick that Naruto took. A loud crack rang out before the jinchuriki dashed around in a circle. Holding the pads up, he watched the girl follow and attempt to cut him off, allowing her to wallop the wooden blockers with more consecutive blows seconds later.

"Left, left, right, hook, kick," Naruto shouted, taking the following hits and jumping back, holding both arms across his face when the girl then flew at him with a sailing kick. The power of the blow racked him, but despite the amount of force put behind it the blonde still managed to smile back at his training partner and circle around, watching the girl dash across and cut him off. "Good, Tayuya-chan! Keep it up!" He then blocked a roundhouse kick and a wild flurry of hooks before maneuvering around her, using a standard fighting form to continue the session.

Tayuya huffed and rushed forward. _"My legs are heavy,"_ she thought, feeling the strain finally getting to her. They'd been at this for an hour already and she was getting pretty tired._ "Come on body! Don't fucking quit on me!"_ She spun in with another kick; landing it as a side-on blow and watching her opponent skip away in retreat.

It was an impressive performance, one that wasn't going on unacknowledged. Sitting on the sidelines, not only were Sasuke and Sakura present on the field, but Tayuya's teammates had also tagged along to join in on the carousing. While the kunoichi from squad seven and Kaede were watching quietly with great interest, Shiho was using her time reading from a book she'd picked out from the library and Sasuke was occupying himself doing some target practice. The latter would every so often stop to observe Naruto and Tayuya's progress, but would then quickly return to his exercises and continue on harder than before.

Sakura flinched as she watched the two Genin in front of her work, "Wow. I never knew Naruto trained so hard." And here, for the longest time, she'd been under the impression that all the boy ever did was wander around and slack off, like he appeared to do in the academy whenever every single teacher found it impossible to get the boy to focus on anything worthwhile.

Apparently, appearances were deceiving, as she found out not too long ago. Naruto was pretty hardcore when he set his mind to the task.

She allowed a smile to grace her lips. "They're both incredible," Sakura exclaimed.

"It's in their nature," Kaede replied for the girl with a sagely look, one which the kunoichi beside him took immediate notice of. "As I understand it, Naruto-san and Tayuya-san are extremely hard workers who get their strength from constant strenuous activity and skill maintenance. While my teammate does possess a great talent in many areas, including ninjutsu, she refuses to allow that talent to go to waste by slacking off. She is hard working through and through, and puts her heart and soul into everything she pursues."

"You have to be pretty damn disciplined to work that hard then," Sakura pointed while looking back at the pair fighting out over the grass. "I don't think I'll ever be able to keep it together like those two. I'm kind of jealous."

Catching wind of this, Naruto and Tayuya suddenly stopped in their tracks and looked across at the kunoichi, surprising her.

Panting and wiping sweat from her brow, the red head called it quits with one last, light jab to one of the wooden pads her partner was holding before pointing at the squad seven kunoichi. "Why don't you come up here and give it a try, pinky?"

"Huh?" Sakura pointed at herself, "Me?"

"Like they say, first time for anything right?" Tayuya breathed hard and wiped her arm across her forehead, moving over to where everyone else was sitting while Naruto waited in the clearing. When the redhead reached Sakura's spot, she helped pull the hesitant girl to her feet. "You want to become a strong ninja? Then put your back into it."

"Yeah, but-hey!" Sakura yelped as she was gently shoved forward by the winded red head, glaring back at her once and meeting Tayuya's wide grin. "Okay, okay, don't push. I'll give it a shot." The pink haired kunoichi then strolled over to Naruto, who held both arms up at the ready, while at the same time Tayuya plopped down beside Kaede to watch.

Sasuke and Shiho looked up when they heard the commotion, and paused for a moment to see Tayuya change out with Sakura.

"Don't worry, Sakura-chan. I promise you'll enjoy this training," Naruto promised brightly, beginning to pace on the spot and clapped the blocks together for good measure.

Giggling nervously, the kunoichi took a stance across from him and began to circle as well, "I doubt it. B-But I'll do my best."

She had to at least try… after all.

"_**Remember, Sasuke-kun is watching!"**_ Inner-Sakura stated while throwing up a fist. _**"Show him what you're made of girl!"**_

Her voice of reason and conscience gave Sakura the encouragement she needed to buck up and face off against Naruto as firmly as she could. Even if it was in training, she'd seen how the boy performed in battle and how hard he'd been working with Tayuya. While part of her was confident that she would be able to do anything the tough-as-nails red head was able to do, Sakura's mind was also split with some negativity about actually being able to accomplish anything remotely impressive.

You could say she was worried.

She wasn't as fast as Naruto or Tayuya, her taijutsu wasn't as good, and she probably wasn't as strong. What exactly did she have going for her in this area?

Well… she was about to find out.

Before they could get started, Naruto began dashing left and right, circling his squad mate to encourage her to move as well and get a feel for her rhythm. The kunoichi started moving at her pace, not exactly using footwork like her teammate but still utilizing a more planted stance. While they were shuffling around one another and Naruto was just starting to get into it, the boy then noticed Sakura lagging behind him, and had to hop in place for a moment or so to allow her to catch up. After doing this a few more times and seeing the girl stumble, the jinchuriki looked at her in surprise.

"Are you okay, Sakura-chan? Your movement doesn't look so good," the boy asked.

Sakura glared at him and shook away the beads of sweat that had formed on her forehead. All they were doing right now was simply getting a sense of distance and timing, but she was already feeling a little bit warm under the collar.

Damn it. She needed to get some more stamina training into her routine. This was embarrassing.

"I'm fine," Sakura snapped.

Blinking, the blonde nodded in acknowledgement, "If you say so." He then held out the left block. "Let's start this with a few jabs. Give me your best ones."

Calculating her range, the kunoichi formed a tight fist with her forward facing hand and set herself comfortably on the ground. After a brief pause and a moment of careful consideration, Sakura then lunged straight at her 'opponent' as fast as she could.

Kicking up dust with her dash, Sakura's left swung in following a straight, hard motion. Before it could make impact, Naruto's eyes widened in shock when he picked up something dangerous and braced himself, a split second before the girl's fist suddenly exploded against the wooden block with a clap of thunder.

The shockwave that rang out was immediately followed by Naruto's body blasting back and the pad he was holding cracking from the impact. The jinchuriki actually had to hold his ground since he never expected to take a shot that strong right from the get-go. After sliding to a halt after a few feet of travel along the grass, the boy looked up from his cringing expression and switched to one of utter surprise when his eyes landed back on Sakura.

Not only did the training partner express amazement at the development, but Sasuke, Shiho, Tayuya and Kaede who had witnessed the whole thing play out were also looking utterly bewildered.

"Damn," Tayuya exclaimed. She didn't know the girl was a power type. That punch was superb.

Even Sakura appeared astonished at how far she managed to push the blonde back, "Huh. That was weird."

"_That was one hell of a jab!"_ Naruto thought in alarm, looking down at the block to see a fist imprint in it before smirking and tilting back up. _"Perfect feet to upper-body and shoulder rotation, transmission of energy, step in, timing, and flow... just like in the textbooks." _She must have been frustrated too, since he could feel the emotion reverberating inside the blocker. Must have been from his comment from before.

Despite her appearance, Sakura really knew how to apply in-text knowledge to practice when she was motivated to, which explained why her punch had so much power based solely on execution of movement and driving momentum. It reminded Naruto of the power he had to rely on when all he had was motion to deliver a blow to take down much larger and physically stronger individuals. Her sense was good despite lacking in excess physical training and recently getting off of the habit of dieting.

However, it did reveal one other thing about Sakura; she had a talent for hard punching. Scary...

Naruto slammed the two blockers together with a thump before taking a stance again. "Nice shot. Let's see how long you can keep that power up, Sakura-chan. Come on."

Roused from her stupor, the kunoichi refocused on her objective and crouched low, before again launching herself at the boy.

Sasuke and the rest of the crew then proceeded to watch as Naruto began taking the swings thrown by his teammate combination after combination, with the Sakura showcasing brute force and power few knew she even had. The loud cracks and thumps that rang out echoed across the entire area and brought a new soundtrack to the environment, putting everyone in awe and bringing a smile to the initially bewildered Tayuya.

Even though Sakura had just come to watch, the rest of her time on the field there she spent training with the others. The more she got into it and sparred with Naruto, the more her own confidence and the smile on her face grew, and soon everyone started to get into the swing of the session…

OOO

**Two weeks later…**

**Afternoon…**

Kakashi chuckled as he looked over the downcast and miserable expressions of his team as they trudged out of the administration building for the last time that day, a complete shift from the attitudes they once held two weeks prior. All three members of the squad appeared both haggard and grungy from the many hours they'd spent pulling weeds out of the old woman's garden they'd been called in to help out with. From all the crap covering their skin and clothes, it was safe to say that their current state of unhappiness was within reason.

Upon making it out onto the street and away from the main building's entrance, the Jonin stopped his group from going any further and gestured for the trio to gather around.

"So… did we have fun today?" the man asked, not even flinching when all he got for his question was a round of glares.

Sakura's eye twitched, "I've got dirt in my finger-nails and damp shorts. It's very unpleasant, sensei."

"Same here," Naruto grumbled, patting down the back of his shorts and looking over to see the brown patch framed around his ass. It never occurred to him that he'd probably get this dirty digging through an old lady's fertilizer covered garden. But then work started and he soon realized how badly he'd miscalculated. "Look at this! I'll have to put this through the wash twice to get this stuff off!"

Seeing Naruto show off his rump from the side had Kakashi laugh good-naturedly. "Now, now, there's no need to get all bent out of shape. Every ninja from every village start out their careers as shinobi the exact same way you guys are. It's just one of the many challenges you're going to end up facing on this road and it's only going to get tougher from here on out."

"I hope so," Sasuke grumbled, expressing his distain at standing out here with wet pants and covered in muck. He wanted to get this little pep talk over and done with so that he could go out and have a bath.

They absolutely reeked.

"What's our next mission for tomorrow, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, looking up at the man after figuring why he'd probably stopped them. They'd just exited the hall where Kakashi had recently finished having a little talk with the Hokage before being handed another scroll by the old man. What else could he have called them over for other than to relay them the specifications of their next job that would probably add more vinegar to the wounds than antiseptic cream?

Kakashi smiled as he showed his team the rolled up document he was keeping in his pocket, which they eyed carefully. "We'll be doing something a little bit different this time."

"Is it a C-Rank mission?" Naruto asked hopefully, a feeling shared by both Sasuke and Sakura as they stared up expectantly.

Kakashi gave them a bright smile. "Nope." Seeing the three deflate at being shot down, the man continued, "It's another D-Rank mission, but this time we're going to be upping the pace a little."

"What? Are we going to be running to our job locations now?" Sasuke asked, getting a whine out of Sakura at the idea of more strenuous activity. They were exhausted enough as it was to start talking about working harder.

The Jonin wasn't swayed in the least by their initial responses and continued. "We'll be delivering a parcel to a village on the outskirts of the _Land of Fire_. Since it will take us a whole day to get there and it's your first mission outside of Konoha, we're going to spend the night at an inn so that we can avoid traveling back by night."

While the change to an out-of-village mission certainly came as a welcome surprise to Sasuke and Sakura based on their reactions, the one most excited at the prospect of their next job, understandably enough, turned out to be Naruto. Stars in his eyes and a grin appearing on his face, the boy gave a loud cheer that had passers turn to look at him strangely for a moment, "REALLY? A road trip outside of Konoha?"

"Yep," Kakashi replied, pocketing the scroll again. "We're heading to Gokayama, a village hidden inside a mountainous region. It's an old settlement with a lot of great views and sites. If you're up to it after the trip, feel free to wander around and shop for some souvenirs while we're there."

"Awesome!" Naruto exclaimed, pumping his fists. "We're going to another village, dattebayo!"

"This is so cool," Sakura silently cheered, sharing in her teammate's joy while Sasuke merely smirked and closed his eyes.

A delivery mission?

Well… it was infinitely a better job than crawling around in the dirt all day long.

Upon seeing their collective responses, the teacher gave a wave as he turned to leave, "I'll meet you guys at the village gate at eight o'clock tomorrow morning. Be ready for a long trip and don't be late."

Hearing this earned three blank looks from the members of the squad before all of them frowned. _"We should be saying that to __**you**__,"_ Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke all thought at once.

With that announcement made and all affairs for the time being settled, Kakashi then dismissed his group and took off into the village in a shunshin. This left the trio with the rest of the day to spend it however they wished. While Sasuke went off to go do his own thing, training and organizing himself some tea for tonight, Sakura and Naruto followed after him with the former trying once again, with gusto this time, to ask him out.

"Hey Sasuke-kun, do you want to go grab a bite to eat together?"

"No," the boy flat out replied.

Just like the dozens of other attempts before, Sakura was shot down.

The girl stopped in her tracks and proceeded to sulk with a raincloud hanging over her head. She watched silently as the genius marched off with his hands in his pockets and breathed out a heavy sigh, _"Again… why doesn't Sasuke-kun want to go out with me? Am I not womanly enough?" _Was it her figure, her age, or her manner of dress? Damn it. She was doing the best she could with what she had. Why couldn't he see that?

Straightening up, the girl turned to see Naruto looking at her curiously.

After a moment of silence, the blonde tilted his head, "Are you okay, Sakura-chan?"

"Y-Yeah," the kunoichi replied while wiping her eyes away. Did she just cry a bit? Probably. "I'm fine." She smiled back at him, wishing to reinstate the toughness she held before.

Naruto beamed at her in response before pointing down the road. "Would you… like to get something to eat together? It's a lot more fun when you can have dinner with a friend." Tayuya was on a late afternoon mission for one of those twenty-four hour businesses, so his diary had a significant gap to fill.

Since he'd asked so nicely and was also showing genuine concern for her, Sakura gave a warm smile in return and nodded towards the jinchuriki. "S-Sure." He was being sweet. She couldn't turn that down after he'd been so nice to both her and Sasuke the entire time they'd been a team so far.

They went down the road to pick a restaurant, not really caring where they went as long as they had a full stomach by evening…

XXX

**The very next morning…**

"You're heading out on _another_ mission?" Tayuya asked sleepily from the futon she had crashed on across from Naruto, watching the boy slip on his jacket and zip it up. "Man… you're even busier than I am…"

"Kakashi-sensei wants us to adjust to the system as quickly as possible," Naruto replied with a bright smile, goggles around his head and headband hanging comfortably around his neck. "Though I'm pretty sure we're already used to it, at least we're making progress. We'll be out of the village for a couple of days, so don't expect to see me until Friday."

"R-Right," the red head yawned, sitting up in her oversized shirt and looking across at the boy as he weaved his way around their little pillow mountain in the middle of the room. "Well… good luck out there, shithead. Are you going to have any breakfast before you set out?"

"I'll just make myself some toast," Naruto chirped as he reached his desk and pulled up his travel pack. Slinging it over his shoulder, the boy took quick note of how the grey bag was kind of bulky and didn't really allow much freedom of movement. He left a reminder to himself to have it replaced with something better suited for his area. "I'm good here. If I need anything I'll forage for it."

Tayuya beamed in his direction. "Come back safe then, alright."

Naruto tipped his metaphorical hat and grinned one last time toward his close friend before stepping out of the room. The boy then wasted no time in heading to the kitchen, toasting himself a couple of slices of bread, jamming them up, and moving with purpose for the front door. He chose to leave with poise this time rather than roguishly through his kitchen window, which was kind of odd.

However, just as he was stepping out the front door with keys in hand, he suddenly felt a pull on his jacket sleeve and turned to see Tayuya, still dressed in her sleepwear consisting of shirt and panties, standing directly behind him.

At first puzzled by her hesitant expression and the signs of red in her cheeks, Naruto's questions as to why she was seeing him off were shortly answered when the girl leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. Her sudden show of affection startled the blonde, who remained planted on the spot through the gesture, right up to when she leaned back and gazed up at him fondly.

Eyes shimmering and face glowing, the musician spoke, "I've wanted to try that for a while now…"

Naruto gulped nervously, "T-Tayuya-chan?"

The girl gave him a look of knowing, "It's a promise. You will come back in one piece, right?"

Recovering slowly, the boy shook himself out of his stupor and returned her question with his usual, everyday vigor, "Believe it." He looked like he was about to take off again, but held himself back long enough to turn around and address another point. "Uhh… Tayuya-chan?"

"Yeah?"

"Would you… like to go out with me sometime?"

Caught off guard at first, the girl then let out a boisterous laugh and patted him on the shoulder, "We always go out and do stuff together, you lug." Earning a sheepish grin from him in kind, Tayuya nodded nonetheless. "But since you asked, I would love to go on a date with you."

Heart racing, Naruto tipped to her in acknowledgement. After trading smiles and looks, the blonde then took off down the walkway leading up to his apartment and disappeared from sight, leaving Tayuya standing in his doorway gazing after him and blushing.

"_I should have done that a long time ago…"_ the girl thought with glee, _"Guess I was having too much fun with him to realize…"_

Still tired and not really wanting to stand out in the morning air in nothing but a shirt and underwear, the red head stretched out before shutting the door behind her, deciding to hit the hay for a little while longer…

OOO

**Later that morning…**

Naruto could barely contain his excitement as he, Sasuke and Sakura walked side by side down the road leading away from their village. They'd already parted from its gates far, far behind and were well on route for their destination, and this being one of the first times they'd actually left the village (consciously mind you), two of them were focusing a lot of their time taking in the surroundings of their general area. It wasn't like they were completely unfamiliar with their territory. They could read maps.

It was just interesting seeing new places for themselves and in person.

"Leaving the village with a team on a mission to parts unknown?" Naruto inquired to no one in particular before grinning brightly, "It's like a dream come true."

"Yeah, except that it's still a D-Rank mission…" Sasuke replied pointedly.

"And it's not exactly parts unknown, just a place that's on the map we haven't gone too yet," Sakura also added with her own smile.

"Well… look on the bright side, at least we're going out to see the world," Naruto stated, slipping his hands into his pockets and marching ahead of their group's formation with his ecstatic grin in full play. "That's the important thing, yeah?"

"So is the mission," Kakashi interjected, walking into the center of their arrangement to see them all turn to him. "Remember to keep an open mind, your wits about you and your eyes trained on the path ahead. Though I'm not asking you to worry about it too much now, remember that we are shinobi on an assignment. Anything can happen on the road when individual or teams of shinobi leave the safety of their village. You have to be on the lookout for everything and anything that could prove hazardous."

"Like bandits and other shinobi, right sensei?" Sakura asked.

"Yes. Common thugs in force can cause a small Genin team some trouble in a D or C-Ranked level mission," Kakashi informed quickly, only to get a roll of the eyes from both Naruto and Sasuke, since an obstacle like that wouldn't really pose much of a problem for them. Their instructor noticed this and shook his head in amusement, "Well… _other_ teams at least. Don't take them lightly though… or any situation where you think you're safe. Always expect conflict wherever you go, but don't make it seem like you're expecting it, otherwise you'll be sending any potential attackers mixed messages with unexpected consequences. You must also be on the lookout for those 'extraordinary cases'. Some mercenaries may be specially trained, military veterans or elites well versed in combat, and can either be really powerful fighters in their own right or trained specifically to fight shinobi."

"We live in a world dominated by shinobi. That's to be expected," Sasuke added, closing his eyes. He came from a village populated by ninja. Even those who weren't trained as shinobi were either really strong or had some form of shinobi training. He also recognized those adults who'd tried to become shinobi in the past but never made it out of the academy, and simply settled for a peaceful life.

No matter where you came from in this world, there was always going to be someone who knew about shinobi and combat.

"Because this is a D-Ranked level mission, any hostile forces we're likely to encounter on this road are common thugs, thieves and con artists, people that even you guys can handle," Kakashi stated assuredly. "If you were to take missions of a level higher than this, then you are more likely to come across actual shinobi."

"That's comforting," Sakura exclaimed, sounding relieved.

This information had Naruto more excited about his future prospects as a ninja as well as in whatever else the world had in store for him. He wanted to see what challenges and adventures laid in wait for him, but he wasn't going to rush it. He was going to wait for them and take life on one day at a time. Sasuke and Sakura however could sense the excitement growing in their teammate, a feeling they could clearly see reflected in his expression, which in turn brought smiles to their own faces. The former was just as enthusiastic about facing some actual shinobi in combat, whereas the latter responded to the enthusiasm emanating from her friend.

It was contagious. She couldn't help it.

Kakashi looked around at each of his students brightly. He ruffled Naruto on the head while they continued moving forward at a relaxed pace and fixed his eyes on the road in front of them once more. "All we're doing is delivering a package that the client wished to have transported safely to its destination without the contents being damaged. He could have hired a courier specialist shinobi, but that would have been too extreme for a mission like this. It's cheaper to higher Genin teams to deliver packages than courier shinobi, since those guys mostly deal with formal documents and such."

"Good to know that our services are so cheap," Sakura commented sarcastically. She didn't know whether to feel honored to take part in a mission like this or pissed off at the fixed rate bullshit for these kinds of jobs. Apparently the other two boys felt the same distain, but it made sense to him.

This was a mission where nothing dramatic was supposed to happen, right? It was a straight, simple, pick-up and drop-off assignment meant to be completed over a two day period. No stops, no diversions, no planning, no combat, no nothing. It was basically just a walk across the countryside from one village to another.

Hopefully somewhere down the line they were going to get attacked by a bear or something, because Sasuke didn't want to end up walking the entire time…

He was pretty sure Naruto didn't want to end this mission just strolling through it either…

XXX

**Later that afternoon…**

The day seemingly crawled by as Team 7 made their way towards the village that was their destination on this trip. While there had been some momentary pauses on the excursion, chief among which included a lunch break at a roadside vendor and Naruto wandering off the path a couple of times out of an overwhelming thirst for adventure, the team eventually arrived in the region where their mission instructed them to be.

Exiting the wide expanse of fields making up the _Land of Fire_, the team found themselves in a rich, diverse landscape of valleys and hillsides. True to its name and description, the village of Gokayama was spread out over an entire area of mountainous terrain. The farms sat in the lowlands where they raised cattle, planted crops and grew rice. The rest of it, and the place they were meant to go, ascended into the high rocks well above ocean level. The winding, twisting road leading through the base villages up into the hills, thick forests and then the steeper climbs, presented the group with the final stretch of their trip.

Climbing up the slopes, passing and crossing fast moving rivers, and weaving through the dense woodland, the group eventually arrived at their village destination nestled in the bosom of the highlands. Bearing that old-fashioned, fantastic feel in its architecture and people, the four shinobi took their time admiring the whole setup of the outland settlement as they made their way through town. Passing various stalls, shops, restaurants and hotels, the squad eventually arrived at the building where the package was meant to be brought.

As it turned out, the person receiving the package was a relative of the daimyo on a trip to the resort there. They were pleasantly surprised to receive the visit from the shinobi and kindly thanked the team for their service.

And that was it…

Squad seven left the hotel with a bewildered air about the teens' heads and a pleasantly smiling Kakashi on their heels.

"Mission accomplished," the man chirped.

"That's it?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi nodded affirmatively, "That's it."

"Well that was considerably underwhelming," Naruto exclaimed, looking across at Sasuke to meet his equally disapproving stare as they ambled back down the main highway. "I was expecting more of a show-downy sort of thing to happen the moment we arrived here. So all we had to do was knock on the door, smile, hand over the parcel, get a signature, and all the while look pleasant doing it?"

"That's pretty much it," Kakashi replied, pulling out his orange book and popping it open. "It was like I said, just a simple pick-up and drop-off; nothing fancy, no heroics, and by the book through and through. I don't know about you guys, but I'd say this mission was a big success."

"Y-Yeah," Naruto murmured, still feeling completely dejected at nothing of real excitement taking place. Sure the sights and sounds of the countryside were captivating, but come on.

"At least we had a nice walk," Sakura added, trying to find some consolation for her noticeably miserable teammates. "The trip outside the village has to count for something at least, right?"

"_**Mm,"**_ she heard the disenchanted grunts from both Naruto and Sasuke.

Sensing the negativity of the atmosphere growing, Kakashi peeked over the top of his book and promptly stopped his team in their tracks. "Since the mission is over now, feel free to wander about the village and have a look around. I'll bet you guys are tired of walking all day and not doing much, right?" When he received three separate nods, the Jonin looked back up. "I'll find us a hotel to stay for the night. I'll meet you three at that barbeque store for dinner when you're all done."

Seeing the restaurant the man was pointing out, the kids acknowledged the location however they saw fit before being dismissed. Naruto quickly broke off, while Sakura went along with Sasuke wherever he chose to go. Even after being turned down hundreds of times asking the Uchiha prodigy out on a date, she wasn't even close to giving up on him. She was going to get a yes from the village's Rookie of the year or die trying.

Taking full advantage of the situation, Naruto spent the next few hours after splitting from his group going through town, checking out the stalls, buying shit, and even coming across some gaming booths setup specifically for the tourists where he cheat-uhh… partook in the activities provided. He completely lost himself in all the sights and glamour of the little village on the edge of the _Land of Fire_, having long missed experiences like this in the two years since his last trip outside of his home.

Now that he thought about it, he wondered how the _Land of the Great River_ was coming along and whether Hanare was doing alright. He was sure the country had managed to get back to its feet in his absence, which made him look forward to a visit later on in his career.

Upon leaving himself a mental reminder regarding his previous adventure, he then returned to wandering about town and checking out the main buildings on the streets. He found himself a quaint ramen bar nestled between two hotels where he bought himself a small bowl of miso, an antic store where he spent a good while looking over the vases and statues, and a jewelry store where he decided to buy something special for Tayuya.

While he was moving between the structures he also came across a small bar and casino that had him pause and consider for a moment, before slowly moving on. When he turned to face the road again however he suddenly bumped into a fair-skinned young woman, with straight, shoulder-length black hair, and wearing a long-bluish black kimono held closed by a white obi. She was also carrying with her a pig, strangely enough, wearing pearls and a vest, as well as a handful of items which were unceremoniously dropped from her hand when Naruto walked into her.

They both stepped back in surprise after all their assorted goods scattered across the floor.

"Oh, sorry, sorry," Naruto exclaimed hurriedly and in panic, bending over to pick up the food items the person had lost. "I'm so sorry, I didn't see you."

The young woman smiled nervously and knelt down as well to help the boy gather up the materials, "Th-That's alright. It was an accident." Once everything was returned to their respective owners, they rose back to their feet. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Naruto bowed politely, shuffling the bag he held in his arm a bit so that it rested comfortably in the joint. Beaming, the jinchuriki took quick note of the pig that snorted at him in greeting, before focusing fully on the pretty young lady he'd run into, "I'm Naruto. What's your name?"

"Shizune… and this here is Tonton," the stranger replied with a warm glow and a quick nod towards the animal she was holding. It was then she noticed the forehead protector the child in front of her was wearing and snapped her head towards it in slight surprise. "Oh. You're a Konoha shinobi?"

"Y-Yeah," the blonde replied while rubbing the metal plate across his neck.

"What's a young ninja like you doing all the way out here?" Shizune asked curiously.

"I was just here on a mission with my team. But since it's over and we've got some time to ourselves, we're just walking around town to see if there's anything interesting." He looked back up at Shizune to see her puzzled stare return to its previously pleasant visage. "Again, I'm sorry for walking into you like that."

The woman waved her hand, "That's okay. I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going either, so… I guess we're both at fault. Yeah?"

Naruto grinned brightly at that, "Okay then. We _both_ walked into each other." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and giggled along with the woman. From the way they were acting it was almost like they were old friends.

"Shizune!" another woman's voice suddenly boomed from inside the bar they were standing beside, startling the pair out of their reverie, "What's taking you so long?!"

Panicking a bit, the raven haired woman stammered, "I'll be right there, Tsunade-sama!" Sighing, Shizune smiled back down at Naruto when she saw the startled boy look between both her and the establishment in confusion. "I have to go now. It was really nice meeting you, Naruto."

"It was nice meeting you too, Shizune," the jinchuriki replied brightly.

With a parting wave, the pair then went their separate ways. As Naruto wandered off of course and down the main street, he couldn't help but think where exactly he'd heard the name 'Tsunade' before, but chose to dismiss his inquiry when he ended up drawing three blanks in a row.

After an hour of more wandering, in which Naruto was able to see the town and valley turn into night from the temple at the top of the cliff, the jinchuriki then returned to meet up with his team. He found Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke waiting for him at the agreed upon restaurant, where they all sat around for dinner before moving on to their hotel for a good night of sleep.

OOO

**The next morning…**

Team 7 left the mountain side village feeling more refreshed than ever. While the journey here had been a bit dull and the payoff at the time the delivery was finalized had been less than satisfactory, the hours spent at the actual village and around its many entertainment venues had been a welcome conciliation prize, and far surpassed their assignment in terms of actually doing something interesting. On the day the parcel was delivered, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura spent their free time exploring the shops, stalls and bars.

The morning afterwards, all four members of the team woke up, had a long soak in the hot springs, a filling breakfast, and then one last hike through town before departing. The descent into the valleys was, by far, the most enjoyable part of their journey, since they all got a much better view of the landscape then they did leaving _Konohagakure_. The sight of the countryside away from their home lasted a good half an hour till they finally receded into the forests and began marching for home.

"I thought this was a nice mission," Sakura exclaimed pleasantly. "It was low key yes, but I enjoyed it in the end."

"It was relaxing," Sasuke said simply, eyes closed and hands in his pockets.

Naruto grinned and scratched his cheek, "Easy."

"Well, hopefully you guys learned something from this," Kakashi said, looking down at each of them as they strolled along the dirt road. "Not all missions are going to be as eventful as others and not all of them play out as you intend them to. Whether the jobs are D-Rank or A-Rank, you have to expect the unexpected. It's a habit you pick up on when you've been at it as long as I have."

"Has a mission like this ever gone South for you, sensei?" Sakura asked curiously, looking up at the man.

The Jonin chuckled sheepishly while rubbing his head, "Several times. A lot of them were the low grade assignments I had when I first started out as a Genin. We got into more than a few scrapes on the road and there were always people looking to cause trouble us. But those were more turbulent times back then, so a lot of the missions we were given were naturally upgraded to a higher tone on the spot."

"Wouldn't want that happening too often… unless you're seriously unlucky," Sasuke said.

A nervous laugh came from one of the three. Take a guess as to which one.

Sakura looked across at Naruto to see the blonde wearing a sheepish grin and was moving in a manner that indicated he was trying to keep his expression hidden from the others. Sweat dropping at his attempts to wave off the comment thrown by the Uchiha, the kunoichi looked back to face the road winding through the hills ahead of her.

"I just want to get home and get all of my affairs in order and sleep soundly on it," Sakura stated, running a hand through her long hair. "I've got some more training to do as well. I need to get tougher if I want to keep doing high volumes of work with you guys in the future."

"Ah. So you're taking a leaf out of Sasuke-kun and Naruto-kun's handbook," Kakashi said, looking down at the girl and patting her on the head encouragingly. "Well done."

"Thanks, sensei."

"If you need any help don't hesitate to come to me or your teammates. We're all here to support you and to help you out if things get difficult for you, so don't stress about doing everything on your own."

"We're Team 7 after all. We look out for one another," Naruto finished with a bright smile in her direction.

Appreciating their words of confidence and support, Sakura rested her hands behind her and walked along with an even warmer aura about her. That and the sun beating down upon the countryside they were now walking across added to her mood…

OOO

The excursion back to _Konohagakure_ across the _Land of Fire_ seemed to take a lot longer than the trip to their mission's destination.

Was it because they were purposefully drawing their return journey out a little bit longer than their venture away from home?

Either way, after passing through one of the small towns they had gone through on their walk to Gokayama, the team once again entered the small evergreen forest crossing down and away from the borders. It was a thick wooded area with a high canopy and you could barely see through several meters into the woods before it became clogged up. The only signs of the outside world they could still see weaving through the woods were the skies above.

The good thing about this particular stretch was that they didn't sense anything hostile or negative in the area. It was pretty peaceful, which not only had Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura at ease, but the more nature tuned Naruto radiating in one of his most preferred settings. The atmosphere and feel of this woodland, much like the village they'd been in before, felt so much different than the forests back in _Konohagakure_. It felt more open here.

These weren't woods divided by a community or a massive defensive wall; this was nature how it was supposed to be.

"The trees are so big," Sakura murmured, looking around at the skyscrapers towering around them. "This isn't even a plantation or anything, just untouched landscape."

"It's kind of bothersome. We can't even find our current position on the map in this mess. Unless we stumble upon a river or something we have no way of actually telling where we are," Sasuke murmured.

Naruto slipped his hands behind his head casually, "We're about half-way through the forest still in a North-Westerly direction of our village, not too far from a river actually." The blonde glanced over at the genius who looked back at him intently. "You may not be able to see much, but I can pretty much feel everything in this area."

Sasuke blinked, "How far?"

The jinchuriki made a so-so gesture with his hand, "It's kind of fuzzy at around three-hundred meters out, but I can still feel stuff beyond that." He then pointed over the kid's shoulder, getting Kakashi and Sakura to look too, "There's a mother deer and her fawn about a hundred and twenty five meters that way grazing." He then pointed directly to the right of them. "And there's a wolf sixty meters that way following us."

Paling, Sakura stepped a little bit closer to the team's resident genius, "W-Wolf?"

"Rogue, 170 pounds, around three feet tall," Naruto reported without missing a beat. "Don't worry, he won't hurt us. He's just curious."

Still not really sold on his reassurance, Sakura huddled up closer to Sasuke with a fearful look on her face, "R-Right…"

Kakashi looked on amusedly at the kunoichi before turning to Naruto, whom he saw was still smiling brightly as per the norm. _"You really do have some amazing points, Naruto-kun."_ The Jonin was genuinely impressed.

Shinobi in general were pretty sharp individuals, able to pick up on abnormalities in any given environment and notice a problem even without fully realizing it. This aspect came pretty handy when trying to deduce a genjutsu world from the real world. The insight that Naruto possessed however was several times stronger than that, as from what he described to them, he was able to use this heightened sixth sense of his as a tool to visualize and perceive his surroundings.

That was an advantage a lot of other shinobi didn't have. Basically in areas like this one, nobody could get the drop on him.

"It's pretty useful being able to sense everything around you," the jinchuriki stated in a particularly pleased manner, "On a scale of one to badass, I'd say that's pretty badass."

"Hmph. Someone likes to toot his own horn," Sasuke smirked.

The boy giving the little information session frowned and turned on the prodigy in a typical Uzumaki response. "Hey! When the day comes you finally get an awesome ability that gives you a new perspective on life, you can blow out as much hot air as you like, teme," Naruto exclaimed while jabbing a finger in his direction.

"Whatever," the Uchiha replied in amusement, looking away.

In order to quell the argument from escalating further and drawing any unwanted attention to their troop, Kakashi incised his person between the pair and eased their bickering with a few words of wisdom. After which the squad continued marching along the forest trek, making steady progress for about half an hour before finally coming across a familiar bridge over the river Naruto had mentioned they were traveling near.

It was a red, arcing walkway, typical in its design and placement, and looked to be quite well done. It made you think what kind of person was so devoted to his craft to actually take the time to make such a good-looking bridge all the way out here in the middle of nowhere. Not that the team was complaining or anything.

There was a bridge that they could use to cross a fast moving torrent and that was good enough for them.

Just as the squad was in the process of climbing over the causeway, the moment they reached the halfway mark Naruto suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. His footsteps coaching to a silent halt caught the attention of the rest of his team, who turned to ask him what was wrong, only to pause when they noticed the startled look in his eyes.

Immediately becoming concerned, Kakashi turned around and removed his right hand from his pocket, "What is it, Naruto?"

The blonde blinked, "I don't know who or what it is but I wasn't able to pick up on them until a few seconds ago." His head then snapped over his shoulder. He didn't even notice that he was still on the opening half of the bridge they were crossing and that not only had he taken up the rearguard, but was also left the most exposed. "Is it some kind of jutsu? Whatever it is, it's messing with the air…"

"What's the distance?" Sasuke asked, also pulling his hands from his pockets.

"Fifty… forty-five meters," Naruto replied, his glare hardening but his pupils and irises remaining dilated in a very intense manner. "Three people. They're getting closer…"

Also becoming aware of the disturbance in the air, Sasuke reached for a kunai whereas Kakashi trained his eyes in the direction Naruto was looking, also picking up on the approaching targets. Sensing the atmosphere becoming worrisome, a concerned Sakura walked quickly up to Naruto and tugged on his sleeve, unable to rip his gaze from the tree line or the forest beyond it. Nevertheless, she voiced her concern to him.

"Maybe it's just a group of animals, Naruto," the kunoichi murmured, "Yeah… just a herd of deer or something, like back there."

Naruto shook his head, "No." He then recoiled a little when he sensed a change. "They stopped?"

Sakura smiled nervously at him and then back at the other two, whom she could see were radiating even more intensity than before. "Come on guys. There can't be someone out there. The forest is crawling with wildlife. Maybe it's just…" Her words were interrupted by the flow of the raging river beneath them suddenly becoming abnormal…

Moments later, the rapids stopped completely.

"JUMP!" Naruto shouted, grabbing Sakura by the arm and pulling her with him. The girl let out a shriek of surprise when she found herself flying through the air in the jinchuriki's arms. Kakashi and Sasuke leapt back as well when all of a sudden the bridge they had been standing on exploded upwards when a massive fountain of water rocketed into the air.

Like a geyser, the water rose from the river in a mighty pillar, fluctuating, warping and twisting before taking on the shape of a massive dragon in the air above them. Droplets rained down on both sides of the river, with Naruto and Sakura ending up on the side they had been previously on, whereas Kakashi and Sasuke wound up on the exit side. Upon making landfall safely away from the destroyed crossing, all four parties looked up in alarm as the massive water dragon roared and whipped through the air before charging straight down at Kakashi.

The silver haired Jonin responded immediately by flying through hand seals and thrusting both hands into the ground.

"_**Doton: Doryūheki!"**_ (Earth Style: Earth-Style Wall)

A massive earth wall jutted out of the ground with four dog heads at its front, which sprang up before the pair and met the spear of the water dragon head on. The massive jutsu formed out of the raging river battered the earth defense with tremendous force, causing the earth to rumble and the forest to shake under the intense vibrations. The sounds of shockwaves ringing out throughout the woodlands drowned out all other noises, including those made by the animals fleeing the scene.

Awed by their teacher's lightning fast actions, Naruto was then pulled away from the sight of the attacking dragon by the presence of one of their attackers emerging from the woods before him. Looking ahead, the jinchuriki saw a tall man with short black hair concealed by a grey top, complete with a hood which resembled a shark's head, an appendage on the back that resembled a dorsal fin and dark pants, emerge from the forest. He also had two dark, violet markings under his eyes.

The stranger, covered by the shade of trees, grinned menacingly, "Hello."

Naruto gritted his teeth and took a stance, with Sakura also noticing the individual when she saw her friend's gaze averted elsewhere. The boy held his arm out protectively in front of the kunoichi while he faced off with the antagonist, "Stay behind me."

Seeing the foe grinning maliciously in their direction, Sakura nodded.

The stranger lifted his head, flashing his toothy smirk, "Like that's going to make a difference." He then lifted his foot casually off of the ground, a droplet of water falling from his toe and hitting the grass beneath his shadow. A split second later, he then slammed his foot back down into it, cracking the earth. The moment the shinobi's foot made contact, water burst out of the ground in a violent fountain before he threw a kick straight up with it, _**"Suiton: Mizu Kamikiri!"**_ (Water Release: Rising Water Slicer) The stream transformed into a fin-like blade that shot across the clearing, cutting through both rock and grass towards his targets.

Seeing the threat, both Naruto and Sakura leapt out of the way, the water blade splitting the ground between the two and leaving a massive gash as it soon dispersed somewhere behind them.

Rolling to a stop, Naruto glared up with his teeth bared and sweat dripping down his head after barely avoiding the attack. _"Shit… this guy…"_ He stood up, noticing out of the corner of his eye that the massive water dragon jutsu that had been summoned was still battering Kakashi's earth style wall. _"He's powerful."_

The attacker chuckled when he saw the blonde haired boy glare at him and the girl that had also dodged look back in shock. "Good reflexes. But let's see you try that again." While grinning in Naruto's direction, he blindly pointed the two fingers of his left hand at Sakura, the kunoichi jerking upwards in surprise, "Dodge this, girl. _**Suiton: Mizu Tetsubo!**_" (Water Release: Water Iron Halberd)

Naruto responded in alarm, immediately dashing straight towards Sakura as the man's two fingers suddenly transformed into water before shooting towards the kunoichi in the form of a fast moving jet stream with the head in the shape of a spear. Clearly not fast enough to move in time, all Sakura was able to do was position herself to avoid, until she was shoved aside by Naruto running into her, both of them rolling across the ground and coming to a stop beside the running river.

By this time the water dragon jutsu had dispersed, leaving Kakashi's wall cracked and worn away, but still holding strong.

Immediately upon moving his not as agile teammate out of the way, Naruto quickly sprang to his feet and formed his familiar cross-fingered hand seal, glare fixing on his completely unfazed opponent, who already had his fingers trained on him…

"_**Tajuu-" THUMP.**_

The sound of a dull thud echoed out as Naruto's eyes widened in shock, his hands coming apart when he was knocked off his feet by the spear of water thrown by his opponent. It plowed through him like a bullet the size of a lance, the boy feeling all sense and weight lift freely from his shoulders as he was propelled into the fast flowing river behind him.

Time seemed to slow for him as Sakura, who was on the ground behind him, looked up in horror as she saw her teammate's body fly over her. The earth wall once defending Kakashi and Sasuke lowered just in time for the pair to see the blonde's body hit by the jet of water and blood spray out of the exit wound from which the water was also traveling. The moment the spear dispersed into the air, Naruto's body then followed the natural path of gravity, as he was yanked back down to the ground and crashed into the rapids. His teammates could do nothing as he vanished beneath the surface.

"NARUTO!" Sakura cried out, her words unable to reach him. He was already gone from sight.

The rapids carried his body underwater down the winding river and over the next rise into unknown territory, leaving all members of Team 7 stunned.

The attacker laughed out loud, lowering his hand and marveling at his marksmanship. "Wow, now that was one hell of a backwards dive. Did you see the look on his face?" the assailant asked merrily, letting out another holler. "What a riot! He was a quick little runt, but apparently not quick enough. Sucks to be him." Unfortunately, he didn't have much time to boast over his easy kill.

"_**Raiso Gekishin!"**_ Kakashi's voice bellowed out, the attacker turning in surprise to see the silver haired man rushing straight at him across the river, crackling with electricity before a barrage of spinning disks made from said electricity were sent flying at him. The assassin responded with a guard, taking the onslaught of disks that cut him to ribbons, before his dissected body parts formed into blobs of water and his form fell to the ground in a splash. Skidding to a stop at the soggy patch, Kakashi glared behind him at the terrified Sakura and shocked Sasuke, "I'll take care of him! Go find Naruto!" He then disappeared into the treetops.

Not needing to be told twice, Sasuke and Sakura sprang to their feet and began following the river. Unfortunately, they found their paths blocked by two shadows springing down from the trees close by. A large, bulky man dressed in a rain-drop patterned blue and green battle garb, complete with mask, snake hood, tribal marking under his eyes, and a massive shuriken on his back, and an attractive woman with brown spiky hair, mask, and wearing a purple battle tunic with the same rain-drop pattern on it as her compatriot's and armed with two scythes, confronted the two kids.

While the man engaged Sasuke on his side of the river, the woman confronted Sakura, the pink haired kunoichi recoiling in surprise.

"Boo," the woman exclaimed, immediately dashing at her stumped target at incredible speed.

Sakura drew a series of kunai and flung them at the approaching woman, who blocked them with her melee weapons before slicing at her. The Genin did her best to stay ahead of the scythes, her training allowing her to keep well out of reach of the blades as they grazed her on every swing… for the moment. Unable to stay ahead of the woman for long, Sakura was then forced to cross her arms over her body to take the kick sent at her. The blow slammed into her guard and sent her spiraling through the air, bouncing across the ground before crashing into the trees.

Sakura cried out in agony and held her shoulder, looking up in bewilderment, "W-Who the hell are you?"

Lowering the leg she'd used to kick, the woman in the mask smirked across at the downed teen and spoke, "I'm Yamame. Now that you know the name of the person who's going to kill you, you're mine!" Holding her weapon up in a show of intimidation and intent, she suddenly saw the pink haired youngster scramble to her feet and take off into the woods on the other side of the clearing. Her quick disappearance into the trees earned a dark chuckle from the older kunoichi. "Oh, so you want to play hide and seek huh? I can do that." Yamame wasted no time in giving pursuit.

"Damn it," Sasuke cursed, seeing the opponent Sakura was engaged with and how powerful she was. Unfortunately for him, he was unable to swear any further then that or take any action against the events unfolding on the other bank due to his own problem rushing towards him. The Uchiha dropped into a hard stance and locked onto his approaching foe. _"What the heck's going on?"_

"You don't have time to look idle, boy!" the man exclaimed, drawing the massive shuriken from his back. Allowing it to spin in his grip like a buzz saw, he then lashed out at the genius with it once he was within range. He saw Sasuke spring back in a high back flip to avoid, effortlessly putting distance between them and getting the attacker to raise an eyebrow, "Heh, you're pretty graceful, aren't you?"

Touching down in a crouching stance, Sasuke was already prepared with his own Fuma Shuriken, which he snapped open and chucked at the rogue ninja. His blade cut through the air towards his target in an arc, who used his massive throwing weapon to smack the approaching airborne one out of the way before throwing his at the prodigy. The genius timed the attack and responded by leaping into the tree line, disappearing into the bushes.

The large shinobi laughed after seeing his foe vanish and formed a hand seal. "Kajika said he wanted to deal with you himself, Uchiha. But since he's stuck fighting Kakashi, I'm going to have to take on the responsibility of killing you myself. _**Meisaigakure no Jutsu**_." (Hiding with Camouflage Technique) Upon gathering the right amount of chakra, the man's body then shimmered before vanishing right before Sasuke's very eyes, his presence disappearing completely.

Watching from his hiding spot, the raven haired boy growled. _"Shit. I'll need to take care of this joker first before I can go help Sakura… and Naruto… but it's not going to be easy."_ The guy could turn invisible after all, so he was going to need more than just eye sight to beat him.

Realizing he needed to end this as quickly as he could, the prodigy decided to play cat and mouse with his now no longer visible opponent and rushed out of his hiding spot. In the special case when a shinobi is unable to find their opponent due to them bending the light around them to make themselves imperceptible, the intended target needed to find some way to lure them out.

Using himself as the bait would have to suffice for now, or at least Sasuke figured.

OOO

Once again taking a blow to the side, Sakura was sent flying through tree branches and bushes before rolling to a violent stop on flat ground once again. Bruised and cut up, the pink haired kunoichi shook as she attempted to push herself back to her feet, looking up fearfully through a bloody nose at her opponent, who twirled one of her scythes around in a casual manner. The sight of the woman standing with her weight on one side and looking down at her gave the teen a sense of just how above the woman was compared to her.

This was not good.

"_I… I can't keep up with her,"_ Sakura breathed, sweating and panting, _"She's faster and stronger than I am… and what's more… she has a really strange technique that makes her disappear. I can't get a lock on her."_

Yamame grinned and tilted her head at the battered girl, "Had enough yet?" She saw Sakura push herself to her feet, using a tree as support. "No? Good. I like it when my prey lasts longer than five seconds. It'll give me something to laugh over before I cut things here and run to help Iwana deal with your Uchiha friend. He's the one we're really after… but what good's a meal without a few side dishes?" She then formed a single-handed hand seal and began to fade.

Within seconds she was gone from sight.

Aware of the increase in danger due to her opponent once again blending into her environment, Sakura quickly pulled out a kunai and took a defensive stance. She looked around wildly, unable to stop her body from shaking. Whether it was from battle damage or fear she didn't know, but what she did know was that her adrenaline had risen high enough it was enhancing all of her senses, including her hearing.

When she heard twigs snapping beside her, she looked across to see footprints suddenly rushing towards her.

Gasping in alarm, Sakura dodged and held up her knife to block. A loud clang rang out when a flash of light streaked across her blade before a sharp pain racked her side, blood spraying into the air from the gash appearing on her waist. The moment she made landfall the teen immediately broke out into a run, desperate to escape.

The sound of menacing laughter from the invisible woman pursuing her filled her ears with terror.

"You were able to block my first strike… impressive. But you couldn't see my second one coming in from down low, could you?" Yamame laughed, her phantom voice echoing throughout the forest as Sakura weaved between trunks and pushed through low-hanging branches. The look of panic on her face was all too prominent at this point. "I've got two scythes here, honey, and I'm going to use them both to remove your head from your shoulders!"

Gritting her teeth, the fear struck Sakura skidded to a stop and spun around. Glaring through the forest back the way she came, the kunoichi threw a barrage of kunai towards the empty spaces ahead, not really caring that she couldn't see her opponent but hoping she would hit her. "Get away!"

The blades cut through the air swiftly, only to be batted aside by the shimmer of her invisible foe charging straight at her. The sight of sparks flying and the sound of rushing footsteps had Sakura back away and throw a kunai with an explosive tag on it. However, instead of hitting her opponent's guard, the knife sailed on until it detonated further down the track then before. This baffled the terrified girl as she brought up another knife, wondering what had happened to the kunoichi until she heard a rustling from above and looked up to see the branch above her shake, before an invisible force plowed into her face.

The blow from her opponent swinging off of the branch and slamming a double-kick into her face like a gymnast sent the teen flying backwards before tumbling painfully across the ground. When she stopped several meters out, Sakura was not only bleeding from the mouth but also had a serious black eye. Groaning and whimpering in agony, the kunoichi looked up from her sprawled out position to see her opponent rematerialize over her.

Standing right over the girl in a position that was practically straddling her, the woman chuckled and held up one of her two scythes, showing the blood she had managed to draw from the teen on her last attack. Sakura's eyes however never left her opponent's smug face.

"Game of tag's over," the woman exclaimed, raising the same blade she'd used to slice into Sakura across her shoulder for a horizontal strike, "Time to end this."

Panicking, Sakura quickly formed a hand seal, only for Yamane to swing in immediately upon seeing her palms slap together.

"Oh no you don't!" the woman shouted, her blade carving straight across the girl's chest and causing a spray of blood to gush out in the direction the curved weapon exited. However, the instant she was sure she'd bifurcated the girl, Sakura's two halves suddenly went up in a cloud of white smoke, which was replaced shortly afterwards by a log, which had been cut clean through by the weapon. Yamane blinked in surprise, "Kawarimi? Heh… nice trick. I didn't think you were that fast."

Stepping over the replacement log, the kunoichi glared through the trees in search of her foe. After a few seconds of scouting the surrounding woods and nothing, the woman smirked and formed her familiar hand seal.

"The moment you come out, I'm going to gut you like a fish." Her body shimmered before vanishing as she became invisible once more.

Panting heavily while hiding behind a nearby tree, Sakura quickly wiped away the traces of blood running down from the corner of her mouth and glared hard through the forest ahead of her. Pressed so hard up against the trunk she was using as cover that she could sink into it at any moment, the terrified girl allowed her eyes to dart around as she thought desperately for a way to beat her opponent. She was getting the shit kicked out of her and was close to passing out. If she didn't do something quick, she was going to lose.

"_How do I get someone who is invisible? How do I attack them?"_ No, that was stupid. Attacking a full-grown shinobi with more experience and who also had a clear physical advantage over her was even stupider then fighting a lion with a pocket knife. Not only that, but she could also nullify her visible presence, which made her situation even more treacherous. _"I can't trade blows with her, I don't have any jutsu that I can throw at her… all I've got are my weapons."_

Kami. Now she was wishing she'd actually spent more time on her ninjutsu back in the academy than her written material and good looks. All she had were basics. The only people on her team who actually had techniques worth a damn and could actually fight people like this were Sasuke and Naruto…

Oh no. Naruto. Was he okay?

He fucking took a bullet for her back there and was now traversing down a river to God knows where, severely injured and probably close to death. Or maybe he was already dead and all they were doing was holding onto far gone hope.

Sakura cursed vehemently. She was a pathetic excuse for a kunoichi. She couldn't even fight to save her own skin for crying out loud. If she couldn't even do that, then what fucking good was she on this team?

What good was she as a kunoichi that couldn't even protect her teammates? Could she even call herself a ninja?

Her rampaging thoughts were cut off by the sound of Yamane's voice filling the air.

"Tick-tock. You're running out of time, honey. Every second that goes by and your friend loses more blood. Hell, he's probably already belly-up downstream and you guys are the only ones left. I'll bet Iwana has already killed the Uchiha brat as well," the woman goaded snidely. "Just give it up."

Gritting her teeth at being unable to track the voice to the source, Sakura glared over her shoulder again towards the clearing. Her body shook violently as she made a fist, not out of fear or desperation, but out of frustration.

No. She wasn't going to cop out just yet. Not when she hasn't done a single thing.

She was going to win this at any cost.

"_I have a few things going for me that I can use; my basics, the element of surprise, and her overconfidence. If she thinks I'm going down from just a few bruises and cuts,"_ Sakura then glared ahead of her and searched for a narrow causeway, an area where she could use her surroundings to her advantage and flush out her opponent. Spotting a track ahead, the girl clenched her muscles before pushing off from her hiding spot. _"She's got another thing coming!"_

Sakura made sure her footsteps were loud enough to be heard all around as she literally sprinted down the path forged by nature. Ducking and weaving through low hanging branches and hurdling over rocks, the pink haired kunoichi made a path through the woods, zigzagging so that she didn't give her foe an easy target.

For a solid minute she ran, not even bothering to look back but knowing full well that the woman was on to her. If she paused for even a second she would be cut down by the woman's scythes. She had to be smart about this.

Finding a small pocket of trees with a straight path and fallen material all around, Sakura broke for it. Ducking under a fallen trunk and leaping over a few more, including some boulders lying in her path, the kunoichi made sure to push off of every obstacle she came across, scattering bark, leaves and twigs before reaching a massive evergreen sitting at the end of her turn. Spinning around, the kunoichi slid to a stop with a kunai in hand and took a defensive stance, back pressed up against the tree.

Panting heavily, she glued her eyes on the path ahead again, making sure she had a clear view of all the branches and the trees around her, from every beam of sunlight to every twig in sight. Though she knew she wouldn't be able to see or smell the woman due to the nature of her invisibility technique, she could still hear her if she pressed her weight down on anything.

She could follow her through her footsteps, one of the only surefire ways shinobi were able to detect the presence of an enemy in a given area.

Sakura only hoped her opponent was heavy-footed.

For several minutes after her breathtaking run nothing happened, with Sakura keeping her eyes set firmly on the path ahead. Eventually, the silence of the forest was broken by the bark and twigs she had scattered across the ground in her run snapping in the path a dozen or so yards in front of her. The kunoichi immediately marked the position and threw the kunai she was holding. As soon as it reached the airspace she knew her target was a loud clang rang out and sparks flew as the blade was deflected.

The moment her knife was blocked, the sounds of rushing footsteps alerted Sakura to an incoming charge. The telltale shimmer of her invisible opponent dashing down the road towards her and passing under the rays of light poking through to trees gave away her position. The teen seized up when she saw her fast moving foe running right at her, not needing to see her to know she had her scythes pulled back and ready to cut her down.

The approaching Yamame grinned under her mask as step by step, she closed the distance between them.

"_Got you!"_

Expression at first showing fear, Sakura then smirked when she heard the footsteps getting closer, a sight that came too late for the charging kunoichi who was only a few yards away. "Surprise!"

_**BOOM!**_

An explosive tag Sakura had discreetly placed against one of the trees on her sprint down the path detonated the moment her target came within proximity of it. The paper bomb went off like a mine, spraying bark, debris and fire sideways and smashing into the invisible kunoichi only a couple of feet away. Yamame cried out in agony as she was sent cart wheeling through the air and crashing through trees. Her body rolled across hard ground until it came to a smoldering stop in a clearing nearby.

Seizing her chance, Sakura drew a kunai and leapt through the bushes into the area across, seeing her invisible foe faze into view when her technique dropped. Not only did she have pieces of bark and wood sticking in her, her left side had been completely burnt, she was bleeding from the head, her clothes were shredded, and she was smoking from head to toe. Watching her struggling to her feet for but a moment, the teen wasted no time rushing forward with blade in hand.

Gripping the one scythe she'd managed to hang onto after being thrown through a tree by the explosion, Yamame's head shot up when she heard approaching footsteps and growled when she spotted Sakura rushing right at her. "Y-You bitch!" She sprang to her feet and lashed out, only for the smaller girl to duck right under her slash and drive her kunai straight into her stomach. The masked kunoichi could only grunt in shock as she was knocked back a few feet, skidding to a stop when her attacker also stopped.

Feeling her knife bury up to its hilt, Sakura growled and twisted it further in, her right eye shut as she could feel blood dripping down from the cut she'd taken from the scythe she dodged by the skin of her teeth. Her sandals dragging across the ground, the teen attempted to push her foe further back, only to feel her dead weight fall on top of her several steps later and a loud clatter ring out as the woman dropped her weapon. Seeing her opponent's arms fall on either side of her had Sakura glare up, where she saw the weak expression of her opponent glaring back down at her from her position over her head.

"That was a pretty sneaky move… back there," the woman choked, her form lurching over more as her blood continued to exit her through the entrance wound of the kunai in her stomach, "I underestimated you…"

Sakura flinched when she saw Yamame's expression falter somewhat, "Never underestimate your opponent; rule number one of shinobi combat. It's something I learned the hard way…"

The enemy kunoichi chuckled, "Looks like… I still had a lot to learn then…" These being the last words she could muster, the woman then allowed her eyes to finally close and her strength to leave her. The moment her opponent slipped, Sakura felt Yamame's entire weight fall on top of her, slumped over her shoulder like a mannequin.

Startled, Sakura immediately withdrew the knife and stumbled back, the enemy woman's body falling to its knees before falling flat over with a deafening thud. Breathing heavily, the pink haired girl stumbled back some while glaring down at the corpse, her bloody kunai still raised defensively in case she was playing possum. However, after a full minute of nothing but her pants of exhaustion and anxiety filling the air, Sakura then dropped her stance and looked down at her hands.

When she drove her blade into her opponent, she'd been holding it with both hands, with her back hand placed against the ring to help push it in. As expected, when she punctured the woman's stomach, immense amounts of blood had poured out. There had been so much of it that not only was her kunai drenched in blood but so were her hands. And this wasn't even counting her own blood dripping down from her head and from her side.

Looking from one palm to another and back down at the body in front of her, the exhausted and stunned Sakura then dropped to her knees and allowed the knife she was holding to fall from her grip. Trembling, the teen's expression slowly twisted from a look of shock to one of utter distress, before her head slumped over. She sobbed and covered her eyes, doing her best to stop the tears as she fell into hysterics…

Who wouldn't after nearly getting killed and ending up killing their assailant for the first time on a mission?

The last thing she ever expected to do after leaving her village on her first assignment outside of it was fight for her life…

OOO

Gritting his teeth, Sasuke glared through the woods encompassing him as he attempted to hone in on his stealthy opponent. Hands held out and set in a wide stance, the genius was using every bit of training and sense he had to try and locate his invisible foe. But due to the fact that he'd disappeared into the treetops as well as become invisible, it made finding him even more difficult than it would have been against a conventional shinobi.

Sure, he'd heard of techniques that allowed for perfect camouflage, but he never expected to face something like this so soon in his career as a shinobi. However, Sasuke wasn't going to let something as trivial as this defeat him.

He'd been going smoothly so far. For the past few minutes he'd been ducking and dodging kunai and shuriken from left and right. It made him somewhat relieved that the invisibility jutsu didn't encompass weapons when used at range, but even though he was able to avoid them, he wasn't able to trace them back to his opponent. The guy was surprisingly agile despite his appearance and he wasn't making the fight easy. The instances where he did try to get close was to try and stab Sasuke in the back, but the boy was sharp enough to hear his footsteps approaching and dodge timely to avoid his blade. He tried countering, but the guy flew off before anything could get into range.

"_This guy is quite the sly one,"_ Sasuke thought, eyes panning the forest. _"Even though he has the ability to turn invisible, he isn't shabby in the stealth department either. He moves really well."_ Hearing a rustle of bushes, the Uchiha spun around with a kunai drawn, only to see a mouse bound out and disappear around a tree. The prodigy frowned as a bead of sweat ran down his head. _"Alright… calm down. You can't sense his presence if you're jumpy."_

Up in the trees above the raven haired boy, Yamane's bulky partner Iwana frowned as he glared down at the youngsters, whose eyes were moving across in his direction.

"_What an annoying brat. Guess they don't call him an Uchiha for nothing."_ He then brought the kunai he was holding up and readied to throw it._ "Maybe I can mess with him a little more before going in for the kill."_ He then shot around the side of the tree and chucked the blade, quickly moving on and changing locations.

Hearing the sound of metal cutting through air, Sasuke leapt back as a kunai suddenly planted itself in the ground where he'd been standing. Flipping through hand seals, he then took aim and inhaled. _**"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!"**_ He then exhaled sharply through his fingers, a ball of fire shooting out and enveloping the canopy, before exploding and scattering flames all over the place. Quickly burning through the tree he'd targeted, Sasuke watched the smoke clear and turned his gaze elsewhere, clicking his tongue. "Where'd he go?"

The guy relocated every time he let off an attack. That pattern of assault was seriously starting to grind on Sasuke's gears.

Deciding to do something about that, the genius leapt through the trees some more, happening upon a new clearing and taking up a central position. Having had enough of this stupid cat and mouse game, the raven haired teen took a casual standing position in the middle of the open area and began fumbling about in his back pouch for a new weapon.

Iwana, leaping through the treetops, saw the boy stop with his back turned in his direction. Sensing an opening, the invisible man grinned and dropped down quietly from the tree. The moment he made landfall, he marched hurriedly towards the Uchiha, keeping his footsteps silent before rearing back with a kunai and lunging to strike.

However, just before he came within range, Sasuke drew the weapon from his pouch and threw it at the ground, a series of smoke pellets exploding around him. Getting a face full of white smoke, the attacker ended up swinging at nothing but air, parting the clouds to reveal his opponent had high-tailed it at the last second. Missing and realizing he'd stepped into a thick of crap that was basically marking his position, Iwana cursed and leapt into the treetops.

"Shit!" The attacker looked down at the forest floor as he ascended into the canopy, realizing he was leaving a trail of smoke in his wake. "Smart little brat." Knowing that he'd been marked, he relinquished his cloak of invisibility so that he could focus on making a quick getaway, and glared upwards when he heard the sounds of air simultaneously cracking. When his eyes locked onto the treetops, he saw a shower of fire balls raining down upon him.

Ducking under the first shot, the man kicked off of the very next branch he landed on and speedily evaded the rest, the barrage peppering the trunk with incendiaries that set it alight. The flames quickly dissipated, leaving nasty scorch marks in the branches and against the trunk.

Iwana laughed at the missed shots, "Is that the best you've got?" he shouted, only to have his taunts cut short when he suddenly felt a pair of hands grab his ankles. Looking down in shock, the shinobi then let out a startled shout when his body was unexpectedly flipped upside-down, where he then found his arms locked to his sides by a pair of legs wrapping firmly around him. "WHAT?! HOW THE-?!"

A smirking Sasuke quickly answered him as the pair began to fall the full four stories down to earth, the genius sitting upright while keeping his opponents limbs locked and practically immobile. "You were so focused on making a quick getaway you didn't even bother to check your perimeter. Amateur mistake."

Speed picking up, Iwana only had a couple of worry free seconds to fully realize his mistake, before his entire world went black with an ear-splitting crack. The ground shook at the impact of the bulky shinobi landing headfirst, with nothing but the hard ground to break his fall that split under his and Sasuke's collective weight. The Uchiha quickly jumped off of the partially buried body a second after impact, landing safely away with a frown on his face as he watched the pillar of a man remain standing upright for a moment before collapsing like a tree in the forest. When it hit the ground, Iwana's body was ramrod straight and his head was still slightly buried. However, it was glaringly obviously that he'd had his brains scrambled from being dropped like an anvil to a floor that had the exact same density as concrete.

Blinking carelessly, the Uchiha sighed and rolled his head, finding the encounter more irritable than a challenge. _"The dobe can put up a way better fight than you."_ He then blinked out of his collective state when he remembered the instances before the battle. "Oh no… Naruto! Sakura!" He immediately sprinted back towards the river, stepping on the dead man's body at the same time as he made all haste towards the causeway.

Arriving shortly afterward, the prodigy leapt clean across the rapids to the other side, dashing up the side and into the woods. Following the sound of an explosion, Sasuke honed in on wherever the blast came from, hoping that whoever had been on the receiving end wasn't one of his teammates. Gritting his teeth desperately, he made swift turns and dashes around the bends in the tracks, dodging trees and branches before finally locating the source of the disturbance. Finding a massive crater and a few collapsed evergreens, the Uchiha searched the epicenter of the cataclysm before spotting the kneeling figure of his kunoichi teammate.

Sasuke leapt over to her, dropping to his knee and placing a hand on her trembling shoulder. She looked pretty messed up. "Hey. Sakura… are you okay?"

Hearing a familiar voice and feeling the hand placed upon her, Sakura looked up at the prodigy with an exhausted expression on her face. Eyes bloodshot from crying and looking like she was about to fall asleep, the girl blinked when she saw her teammate's concerned face staring back at her. "S-Sasuke-kun?"

Seeing she was okay, the Uchiha then looked towards the body nearby. Recognizing it as the woman his squad mate had been stuck fighting, and spotting both the pool of blood beneath her and the bloody kunai lying in front of the teen, the Uchiha guessed what must have happened here. He relaxed a little and looked back at Sakura, squeezing her shoulder reassuringly.

"Your first time killing someone?" He saw the girl nod, getting his gaze to deepen. "Me too." This answer had the kunoichi's gaze snap towards him in surprise.

"Sasuke-kun… you…?"

The boy smiled at her, "Remember, we're shinobi. Stuff like this happens to us all the time. No matter what the circumstances, no matter where we are or who we're dealing with, we must always be prepared to fight and to kill. Kakashi-sensei told us that. That's the way the world works and that's how harsh and unforgiving the road we walk on is. But it's the one we chose, right?"

Hearing his words, the firmness and confidence he spoke with them, had Sakura bite her bottom lip nervously, before her head moved in a reluctant nod. Legs crossing even more, the girl braced herself tightly as Sasuke knelt by her for comfort.

"I… I did what I had to do," Sakura murmured, shivering. "There was no other way. She was going to kill me… _and_ you… so I had no choice but to kill her. I needed to protect you, and Kakashi-sensei… and Naruto… b-but I… she… I…"

Gaze hardening, Sasuke shuffled forward so that he stood further in front, getting Sakura to look at him and face his glare. "Listen, what happened here between you and her and what you did doesn't matter right now. You won and that's that. But we can't just sit here and try to fix it. Naruto got hit and fell into the river. His body could be miles away by now. We need to find him and make sure he's okay." His grip tightened on her shoulder as he prepared to help her up, "He's our friend, and we're his teammates, remember?"

Quickly snapping out of it from the prodigy pulling on her arm, Sakura shook her head furiously before looking up. Dismayed expression disappearing and being replaced by one of determination, one that many had seen on her countless times before, the girl nodded.

"R-Right." Finding strength in her legs again, she pushed herself back up. As soon as she was on her feet, she brushed the blood off of her hands before taking off with Sasuke.

Moving together, the two of them dashed as fast as they could back towards the river. If there was any chance that their friend was still alive, he would be trying to pull himself out of the rapids right about now…

They also wondered how Kakashi was doing…

OOO

"_**Katon: Karyu Endan!"**_ (Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet) Kakashi bellowed out as he threw his head forward, a blast of flames rocketing out from where his lips were and ripping across the ground. The entire forest floor, trees and all, were engulfed in flames as the attack charged the assailant the silver haired Jonin was fighting down in the form of a fast moving wall.

Feeling the blast of heat before the fire itself in the form of a shockwave, the man with the shark hood grinned maniacally, flipping through hand seals and throwing his left arm back. Just as the wall of fire was gaining ground, water began to warp and spin above the man's palm before he threw it forward. _**"Suiton: Hahonryu!" **_(Water Release: Tearing Torrent) A blast of water like jet fired from his hand and tore across the ground in the form of a wave.

The attack spread as it flooded the forest floor and met the wall of flames head on. A massive tremor rang out as the fire and waters mashed together and blasted skywards. The sound of loud hissing filled the sky when the water evaporated and extinguished the flames, causing a cloud of steam to envelop the forest and a mist to form. Effectively blinded, both combatants glared hard through the thick of it, with Kakashi pushing up his headband and flashing his Sharingan.

The tomoes of his special eye spun as he sought out his opponent, whom he saw grin at him through the rain cloud before dashing left. The Jonin responded by dashing right to meet him, his eye watching his target flip through seals again while weaving through evergreen trees in a mist almost impossible to see through.

Thanks to his eye though, he was able to spot the man's faint shadow through it.

"_**Suiton: Ja no Kuchi!"**_ (Water Release: Snake's Mouth) the man exclaimed, the mist of water converging around him to form a mass of water before it increased in size. The twisting torrent then shot through the woods towards Kakashi running adjacent to them, the head of the spiraling spout forming into that of a snake, which then lunged down at the Jonin who responded by leaping into the canopy, barely avoiding the massive wave that crashed into the ground and literally sunk several trees in the area.

The sound of explosions and a forest being brought to its knees filled the region with the track of an epic battle of two high-class shinobi trading blows and attempting to out-do the other.

The would-be Team 7 assailant grinned as he skidded to a stop, his feet splashing in the pools that had collected in the wake of the tradeoff. His eyes fixed onto the canopy as he took an offensive stance.

"Kakashi Hatake of the Sharingan; you certainly do not disappoint!" the man laughed.

Said Jonin landed high up above the ground, well out of reach of the floods that had nearly taken him out. Though he wasn't exhausted, the masked man was still weary of how liberal his opponent was being with his jutsu. "I never expected to run into Kajika of the Hidden Mist all the way out here in the _Land of Fire_ either. What do you want?"

The rogue Jonin cackled as he extended his hand towards the branches. "I'm simply here on the orders of my new master."

"Orders?" Kakashi murmured.

Kajika's grin widened. "My job was to test the skills of the prodigy Sasuke Uchiha and to kill off his compatriots. If he was to prove exceptional, I was instructed to knock him out and bring him back with me. Since you're standing in my way, I'll get rid of you first before going after my prize."

"Sasuke is no prize, and I'm no pushover," Kakashi shot back, his glare hardening down towards the forest floor as he pulled out a cluster of kunai. "You attack my team and try to kill my precious students. I won't show you any mercy today."

"Then by all means, show me how cruel you can actually be," Kajika replied snidely, flying through hand seals before stomping a foot in the puddle. The water then rose up from the ground to form several blobs suspended in midair, before they elongated and solidified, becoming huge blocks of ice with razor sharp tips, all of them pointed in Kakashi's direction._** "Suiton: Rekku Suigeki!"**_ (Water Release: Cold Sky Water Attack) He then hurled the series of large darts straight into the canopy, cutting branches to ribbons and shooting straight for their target.

Eyes widening in alarm, Kakashi leapt straight out of his tree, which was shredded by the rain of ice at the same time as he chucked the kunai down at his opponent, explosive tags attached to them.

Spotting the attack, Kajika flipped through several more hand seals. The pools of water at his feet shot up around him in the form of a wall. The flowing barrier caught the cluster of kunai, stopping them dead and cushioning the concussive explosions that ripped the ground apart and sent smoke and steam hurling into the air. This wall of smoke was then cut away by a large drill of water suddenly blasting its way out of the thick and into the canopy.

The spinning and twisting fountain of water whipped around through the branches before diving straight towards Kakashi, who glared up at him fiercely and formed several hand seals of his own.

"_**Doton: Doryu Joheki!"**_ (Earth Release: Earth-Style Rampart) Kakashi said, leaping back as a massive slab of earth rose out of the ground in front of him, forming a semi-circular wall around him. The thick barrier, composed of stone, earth, and mud stood between him and the massive water spout spiraling in his direction.

"_**Mizu Tatsumaki!" **_(Tornado of Water) Kajika's voice roared out, a split second before it plowed straight into the wall and dug.

Normally when a water technique met an earth style technique, the water jutsu would easily lose out to the earth jutsu due to water techniques being weak against earth.

Things were no different here… which was why the tornado suddenly changed course and went straight up, over and down, shocking Kakashi and slamming headlong into him before he even had a chance to effectively respond. The silver haired man let out a cry of agony as the tip of the drill mashed into him before sending him spiraling through the trees, crashing into a handful before rolling to a stop in a battered mess across the ground.

The water spout that had hit him then flew towards him and slammed into the ground, disappearing moments later to reveal Kajika standing there and grinning with his arms folded.

Looking down at his foe, the rogue ninja saw Kakashi's body was not only battered and bruised, but also had a massive spiral mark in his stomach with gashes coming out from the center. His clothes were ruined and he was soaked to the bone. From the looks of it, the man was probably dead, but Kajika knew better. The rogue grinned as he glared down at the body of his foe, kicking the drenched sandal of his foot.

"So much for the great Copy Ninja Kakashi. This will make my rep forever," Kajika exclaimed, tilting his head as he inspected the area. "I'll kill you and go after Sasuke-kun next. Now… where could Izawa have taken him?" He then froze and stood in place when he felt the cold of steel press up against the base of his neck, his eyes widening in horror. "N-No way… how did you?"

Kakashi, completely unscathed, emerged from the shadows standing directly behind him with a kunai pressed against his collar and both eyes locked onto him.

"You were careless."

Stunned and bewildered, Kajika looked down at the 'Kakashi' he'd supposedly beaten, only to see him dispel in a puff of white smoke. That sight alone was all the confirmation the cocky rogue shinobi needed. "A Kage Bunshin?" His glare hardened, _"But… when did he?"_ His eyes then widened when he thought back to when their last techniques collided, the wall of fire against the wall of water. The entire area was clouded in steam from the attacks exploding, plenty of cover to create a shadow clone and send it off to continue the fight while the original hid. Kajika frowned moments later once he was finished breaking down the events. "You're not as good as people say you are… you're better…"

Kakashi frowned as he lifted his free hand and pulled his headband back over his Sharingan eye, having not needed to use it much in the fight at all. "You should have realized that before you decided to start trouble with me." He then fixed his one eye on the back of the man's head like a crossbow ready to fire. "It's a shame; you have both talent and skill… something I would expect from a Jonin of _Kirigakure_. However, your days of being a shinobi end here." Killing intent then began radiating off of him like gas, filling his opponent's body with fear. "Tell me… who are you working for?"

The rogue ninja froze and his body suddenly ceased shivering. Whether he was going to remain silent, throw some clever retort back at him or answer the Konoha Jonin's questions were beyond Kakashi. However, all of his inquiries were soon put to rest when he saw Kajika slowly begin to turn.

When it first appeared he was going to see Kajika's snide grin complete with confident expression flash into view, Kakashi received the shock of his life when he saw the man's appearance had drastically changed. The skin around his eyes had taken on a purple pigmentation, with his irises a shade of yellow and pupils formed into slits. Upon getting a good look at the change in his expression, the silver haired Jonin also noticed a purple, evil chakra starting to radiate off of his form, and a killing intent even greater than his flood the entire area.

Kakashi choked as he looked back into the gaze of his target… only… it was no longer his…

"_**It looks as though some surprises are meant to be spoiled, eh Kakashi?"**_ Kajika replied in a very raspy, strained voice that could only belong to one other person.

Before the Jonin could ask any more questions, Kakashi then sensed the amount of chakra radiating off of his foe increase sharply and responded immediately. Crouching low, the man kicked off the ground as fast and as hard as he could, ducking behind the trees a split second before Kajika's body exploded. The blast shook the entire area and enveloped it in flames and smoke, blasting a massive crater into the ground and causing surrounding trees to collapse into the epicenter of the cataclysm. Seconds after the explosion took place, the smoke choking up the forest lifted, revealing a smoldering pothole and absolutely zero remains of the rogue ninja.

Poking his head out from around the scorched tree, Kakashi frowned as he panned over the ruined area, which looked like a meteorite had made landfall where he'd once been standing. Breathing a sigh, he stepped completely out from around the evergreen and rested his hand against the trunk, glaring out across the landscape that had served as his battleground.

It had been a harrowing fight for his clone and a close shave in the last few seconds, but he was able to uncover the reason as to why his team had been attacked today.

Somewhere out there, hiding in the shadows and watching the hidden villages squabble amongst each other; there was a dangerous man at work. In recent years, he'd made quite a name for himself for all the trouble he'd been stirring, and was known all across the continent as a former shinobi of _Konohagakure_ and a member of the _Three Legendary Sannin_.

The thought that this man had taken an unhealthy interest in one of his student's, the last of the Uchiha, had Kakashi's skin crawl and filled him with a sense of foreboding…

"Orochimaru…"

But of course, worries for the future could come later. Right now, he had to get his team back together and go find his other student…

XXX

**The next day…**

"_**Heh… you're lucky…"**_ the Kyuubi's voice boomed through his head, though it was slightly condescending in its tone._** "That's all I can say. Anybody else would have rolled over and died from having a lance made out of water shot through their stomach… but not you."**_

"_Call it stubbornness…"_

"_**I would, but unfortunately you have me to rely on to keep you alive.**__**Be grateful."**_

"_I'll do my best. Thanks… furball."_

"_**Stop calling me that, you whelp,"**_ the fox growled back, his anger clearly evident. _**"Remember, I'm only doing this to save my own skin… not yours. Think about that the next time you go do something stupid, like trying to get yourself killed."**_

"_Right,"_ Naruto's inner-thoughts chuckled before he was slowly pulled out of the darkness.

The darkness from that point onwards merely turned out to be his eyes closed over, which he opened to greet the light above him. Lids fluttering, the once unconscious jinchuriki blinked back into life and looked around, finding himself in some sort of forest, but not the one he and his team had been traveling through. He then stiffened when his memories eventually replayed his last conscious memories and what had transpired before his unexpected sleep.

Shit. Where was his team? Looking around, the boy saw no signs of them, except for the large gap in the forest he was lying in where he could see the river that had taken him all the way down here on the other side. Unlike the rapids that he'd crossed over on the bridge but was then attacked, the river he could see was flowing smoothly without any disturbances or breaks on the surface. What's more, he could also sense he was on a different plain of land altogether.

Where the heck was he?

Sitting up quickly, the boy winced when he felt a sharp pain in his stomach and looked down to see he was shirtless. He also had bandages and gauze wrapped around his mid-section. Puzzled at the sight of the medical material as well as the herbal remedies he could see in the dish and plants resting beside him on the mat, the boy began looking around some more. He quickly found his jacket, headband and goggles resting between the roots of a tree standing nearby.

Apparently whoever saved him was not only kind enough to stitch him up but clean his clothes too. That was nice.

"But… who saved me?" Naruto asked out loud.

He didn't remember pulling himself out of the river and he certainly didn't remember bandaging himself up on both ends. The attack that he'd been hit with went right through him. So who…

"Hey, mister!"

Reacting in alarm and completely forgetting about his wounds, Naruto sprang off of the ground and straight into another nearby tree. Grabbing the high branch by his toes and hanging there, the jinchuriki looked around wildly for a moment before his eyes fixed on the branch across the way, where he saw what he immediately figured was the person who rescued him.

A beautiful young girl around his age and height with short green hair, dark skin, orange eyes, wearing a white top exposing her midriff, a short white battle skirt, matching sandals, fishnet mesh underneath, and was carrying a weird red cylinder on her back, was lying across said branch on her stomach. As if she were lying on top of a couch with her feet up, the girl beamed down at the swinging boy with perhaps one of the brightest smiles Naruto had seen on another human being besides himself.

It was nice.

The girl grinned at him, "Hello!"

Blinking, the newly recovered Naruto smiled back, stopping himself from swinging long enough to turn his upper body the right way up and get a better look at the stranger, "Hey. Who're you?"

The green haired teen giggled as she allowed her legs to sway, "I should be the one asking you that question." She lazily pointed down at his gear folded up at the base of the tree she was on, "A strange boy with whiskers, wearing orange and a _Konohagakure_ headband with a hole in his stomach washes up on the bank of a river? It's only natural I should be asking first."

"Oh. Well… I can't argue with that," Naruto grinned, swinging himself up and on top of the branch he was hanging off of. Straddling it, the boy looked gleefully at the girl giving him the exact same expression of delight and curiosity as he was her, "Since you helped me and everything, I guess I'm in your debt. I'm Naruto… Naruto Uzumaki: full time misfit, part time hero, future Hokage of _Konohagakure_."

The girl laughed and sat up, positioning herself comfortably on her branch with her legs hanging over the side. "So I was right, you ARE a ninja… just like me." She then flashed the boy the headband she had wrapped around her arm, which looked like it had an arrow pointing downwards. Naruto recognized it from sight, but allowed the girl to answer for him, "I'm from _Takigakure_ though."

"That makes us neighbors, doesn't it?" Naruto asked.

"Yep!" the teen nodded her head enthusiastically, "Well… more like allies. Oji-san is really good friends with your village leader, so either way is fine since we're clearly not enemies."

"That's good. It would have been bad if we were, otherwise you would have done the exact opposite to patching me up," Naruto exclaimed, placing a hand over his bandaged wound and rubbing it forlornly. "Thanks so much by the way. If you hadn't found me when you did… I probably would have bled to death."

"Bleeding to death would have been the least of your worries," the green haired Taki kunoichi said with a weak smile. "The hole through your body was so big I could stick my entire arm through it. When I pulled you out I thought you were going to die, but then the wound started to close while I was cleaning you up and decided to put a bandage around you. I've never seen someone heal so quickly, especially from an injury like that."

Naruto looked at her cheekily, "Creepy, isn't it?"

"Pretty much," the girl replied.

The pair shared a laugh, a soundtrack that filled their surroundings and added to the choir of birds and the echo of the river not too far from them. Once their chuckles died down, Naruto once again gave his savior his full and complete attention. "You're really nice. What's your name?"

"Me? Well…" the girl stood up, grinning proudly as she placed her hands on her hips, made a very alluring pose and threw her head back, causing her locks to wave gently on the wind. "The people back in my village call me…" Pause for dramatic effect, "the happy, go-lucky, green-haired, wild child!" She looked back at Naruto, who she could see was still smiling from ear to ear as he listened eagerly to her introduction. After a moment, she quickly toned down her excitement and shifted her weight to the other side, "But I prefer Fu."

"Fu?" Naruto tested a few times, before rocking back and forth with stars in his eyes, "That's a really nice name. I like it!"

"Thanks," the girl chirped, giving the boy a thoughtful look followed by a warm gaze, "I like the name Naruto, too. It suits you."

"Ditto," Naruto replied, jumping to his feet and breathing a sigh as he rose to full height. Rubbing his still throbbing injury, he took his time looking around at the forest again with a curious glimmer, "So… where exactly am I? This doesn't look like any forest I'd seen around Konoha before. The trees are different." He didn't need to know every wooded area on the map to identify a particular type of region.

The trees, the smell and even the air didn't carry the same odor as the Land of Fire he was familiar with. It made him wonder just how far down river he was actually taken before eventually becoming beached in shallow mud.

Fu beamed at him when his eyes cut to her, "You're on the edge of _Takigakure_ territory. You're lucky I just happened to be fishing in the area, otherwise I wouldn't have found you?"

Naruto blinked in surprise, "Really?" He then acknowledged this fact as he took in his surroundings once more, becoming familiar with the feng shue of the environment before turning back to the teen questioningly. "Why are you so far outside of your village? Isn't it somewhere nearby?"

"No," Fu shook her head firmly. "It's pretty far from here… somewhere in the middle of the country. I was actually sent on a mission to deliver some precious minerals from my village to a doctor on one of the towns on the outskirts. I was on my way back when I decided to stop and get myself something eat, but found you floating in the reeds with a strange orange glow around your wound."

"That makes sense. Cool," Naruto replied, before facing south. He breathed a sigh and rubbed the back of his head, "Man, I must have traveled further then I thought. Oh well." The boy then dropped down from the tree to land beside his temporary bedspread. Collecting his clothes and slipping on each article one after the other, he turned to see Fu coming to hang from the branch directly beside him, their faces level despite one of them being upside-down and suspended above the grass. "I should probably head off to try and find my team. They must be worried sick about me."

Fu looked him over, "You got lost?"

Naruto had the courtesy to look sheepish, "More like I got into a fight and nearly wound up sleeping with the fishes." He zipped up his jacket and wrapped his headband back around his neck, "My team was on a mission delivering a package to a village somewhere along the edge of the country and were on our way back when we were attacked by this freaky guy wearing a shark costume."

Fu giggled in amusement at mention of the antagonist, "Shark costume?"

"I think he was a Chunin or Jonin level ninja, I don't know. Either way, when I tried to divert his attention he got me before I could even produce any clones… and I must have fallen into the river that was behind me," Naruto replied, finishing tying up his headband and pulling on his goggles. "I sure hope my team's okay. There were two other people in the area. The guy that hit me was the strongest of them."

"Must have been scary," Fu said with an intrigued look in her eyes.

"Well, it got my blood pumping, yeah," Naruto replied, stretching out and rolling his arms. "Thankfully I wasn't too riled up otherwise all of the blood in my body would have been pumped out through the gap in my stomach."

As the green haired girl laughed and moved around Naruto to look his now clothed form over, the jinchuriki quickly took note of the herbs and medicines she had used to disinfect his wounds. Scanning over the equipment, which had apparently been fashioned out of stuff she was able to find throughout the area, the blonde stood back up after a moment and took with him the small bag of goodies lying at his feet.

The bag was made out of a large leaf, and the contents of it were a mixture of leaves, roots and dead things. Surprised, the boy pulled out a moldy lizard and sniffed it, before turning to the enthusiastic Fu hovering behind him. "Wow, you use a lot of good stuff. What is this, a Leaf-Tailed Gecko?"

"Uh-huh." Fu pulled a dirty root out with leaves attached to it, "I used these to make a remedy to help disinfect your injuries. They work well on ordinary people but work so much better on you since you heal so quickly."

"I really appreciate it," Naruto said while folding up the bag and handing it to her, "You really know your stuff. I never thought I'd ever run into someone with the same hobbies as me all the way out here."

"Small world isn't it?" the girl said brightly, sticking her tongue out. "When I was younger nobody really wanted me around that often back in the village, so I spent a lot of my time walking about and learning interesting things in the surrounding forests. It helps that I feel much more at home up in the trees then locked away in some stuffy room."

Naruto tilted his head at her, "You had it rough too, huh?"

The green haired girl smiled weakly and rubbed her head. Swinging from side to side ever so slightly, she conveyed an air of both vulnerability and mild despondency, "Yeah. I didn't know why until a few months ago when my village leader said I was the host of the Seven-Tailed Horned Beetle, but that's all in the past now. It gives me a chance to show people that I'm not a monster and that they don't have to be afraid of me." She stopped when she noticed the deadpan stare she was getting from the blonde. "Hm? What's wrong?"

Naruto pointed at her dumbly, "Y-You're a jinchuriki too?"

It took a few seconds for that piece of information to sink in, so once it did, Fu was soon beaming. "Wow! Another jinchuriki?! Seriously?!" She leaned towards him sharply with an excited glow in her eyes, "Which one do you have?"

"The Nine-Tailed Fox… but I just call him furball. He's a grumpy old cat, but I think he's adorable…"

"_**I will eat you,"**_ the voice in the back of his head growled.

"No you won't," Naruto shot back briefly while straightening up and looking proud. "So you have one too… and it's a beetle. That's so cool. What's he like?"

"Big, covered in armor, helps me to fly… oh, _and_ he's a vegetarian," Fu replied quickly. "Believe me; they're not as grouchy as they make themselves out to be."

Naruto's jaw nearly dropped, "Wait. You can fly?"

"Sure. It's one of my abilities," the girl replied, stepping back and cracking her neck from side to side. With not even a hand seal to knead the required amount of chakra, the girl suddenly lifted up into the air like she was on wires. A continuous gust of wind hit Naruto in the face when he suddenly saw two wings appear on either side of the girl through the red cylinder on her back. Fu gazed down at the boy as she climbed a full story above the ground, showing off her extra appendages beating like a hummingbird's wings before turning back around with her hands on her hips. "So! Whatcha think?"

The boy's eyes nearly bugged out before an ecstatic look flashed across his face, "THAT'S SO AWESOME!" He glanced down at his stomach area and rapped on it a few times, "Hey cat, why can't you do something cool like that?"

The familiar grumble of the fox echoed out from inside of him, _**"I heal you, don't I? What more do you want?"**_

"No, I mean something outrageous like hovering and shit."

"_**What do you think I am? A fucking bird? Stop bothering me."**_

"You've got nine tails and you're as big as a mountain. I figured because you're some all-powerful demon, you'd be able to do more than just level forests and create tsunamis sixty stories high. Come on. Feed me some line here."

"_**Stop talking to me and maybe I will."**_

"Then who will listen to my awesome tales of heroism and bravery?"

"_**Someone who gives a shit. Leave me alone."**_

Fu, still hovering in place, watched Naruto have his little back and forth with the voice inside of his head. The sight of the blonde bickering with the nine-tails inside of him had the girl tilt her head curiously at the peculiarity of the situation before her own resident resting inside her voiced his concern. Apparently their ruckus was loud enough to rouse even the mighty seven-tails from his slumber.

"_**Those two have issues…"**_

"Mm," Fu nodded in agreement.

Breathing a sigh of relief when the fox calmed down enough, Naruto looked up at the floating girl and smiled apologetically, "Sorry about that. He gets really agitated in the morning."

Fu slipped her hands behind her back, "I take it you two don't get along very well just yet."

"Not exactly. He's very closed off and doesn't like talking to me. I… don't really know why. I just want things to work out between us."

"Maybe because he's had it rough as well," Fu offered helpfully, seeing the boy look up at her uneasily. "Be patient. I'm sure he'll open up to you eventually. He just needs some time to heal, that's all."

Naruto, remaining silent in contemplation for a moment, managed to get his usual self together again and slammed a fist against his chest, "Laughter and words are the best medicines in the world, dattebayo. I'll get that furball to see how cool I am, or die trying. Count on it." Hearing the girl laugh and watching her summersault, the jinchuriki then got a terrific idea and nodded up to the teen when she turned to face him after performing a few skillful loops. "How good are you with that, anyway?"

"I'm pretty fair… but I try not to use it too often," Fu stated, "A jinchuriki can't always rely on their biju. We need to be tough ourselves if we want to survive out there in the big scary world. Why do you ask?"

Naruto smirked confidently, clenching his fists as his stance hardened on the ground while the girl suspended her form before him, "I'm just curious to know how strong you actually are?" He lowered his head as a mischievous shadow crossed his eyes. "Want to fight?"

Baffled at first at his sudden challenge, the girl then allowed a smirk of her own to cross her face as she took on a sly and devious look that easily rivaled Naruto's.

"Sure."

OOO

**Sometime later…**

After regrouping with his team the afternoon of the day before, Kakashi's first order of business was to make sure that both of his students present were still in one piece. While Sasuke had emerged from his fight relatively unscathed, save for some bruises and scuffs that had resulted from his running around, Sakura had had it the worse.

Not being as adept at taijutsu or ninjutsu as her teammates had left the kunoichi in a poor state following her fight with the enemy. Even though she emerged victorious over the older and more experienced warrior, the cost for her had been quite high.

Not only had she been battered physically by the event, she was also hit emotionally.

That day marked the first time either Genin had to kill another person in order to succeed, both of whom had been shinobi to boot. What's more, the battles Sasuke and Sakura wound up fighting had also been their first real combat experiences outside of regular sparring and training. All of their time spent in the academy and as shinobi on squad seven had all been in preparation for this, and while one had been able to hold it together, to the other, the excitement and adrenaline had come as quite a shock to the system.

It took Sakura a bit of time to completely get over the fact that she'd actually killed someone in a straight up fight, but with the combined counseling from her teacher and reassurance from the one teammate who was present, she was able to get it together and press on.

Upon fixing Sakura up, Kakashi then took both teens on a frantic search down river for their other squad member. They traveled quite a ways from their battleground on both sides of the causeway where the terrain grew heavier and more treacherous. Together, the three of them covered every inch of land possible to make sure no reed, ledge or patch went unchecked. Inevitably, the group hit a huge milestone in the form of a sheer drop and a massive waterfall over the side, stopping the group dead in their tracks.

The cliff they wound up at that day after an hour of running marked the very border of the _Land of Fire_, something that they'd need to cross if they had any hope of finding their teammate. Hell, the sight of the cliff and the height of the drop alone made two of the three believe that there was no way in hell that Naruto could still be alive. Kakashi however was adamant. Telling them not to give up hope, he took them on a detour around the cliff and back over to the lake at its base. This trip on its own cost them a lot of time, meaning that by the time they started traversing the lowland river, it was already night.

They bunked down for a rest, worrying endlessly over their friend's condition.

Eventually the sun had to rise again and, like clockwork, the squad was up and running once more.

It wouldn't be until they reached a point of the fast moving river where the whole thing slowed and became shallow that the team came across a rather remarkable sight.

The trio standing on the riverbank watched with incredulous expressions as a still alive and well Naruto, in a flurry of splashes and blurs, was playing tag with a girl with short green hair in the shallow parts of the stream. Both of them were running circles around each other and laughing uproariously, making quite a ruckus in what they suspected to be a once quiet area.

All three new arrivals looked on silently and with completely bewildered faces as their teammate traded shots at the teen, tackling her into the pond where she then flipped them over and threw him off, allowing them to land in separate spots.

Crouching low in the water, Naruto grinned, "You're pretty good, Fu-chan."

"So are you, Naruto-kun," the girl exclaimed back before disappearing in a green blur.

Water kicking up, the blonde haired jinchuriki dodged at the last second to avoid his opponent attempting to blindside him with a lariat. He then leapt clean across the water and skidded to a stop near the bank, turning and kicking a wave of water back at the girl, who ducked under the splash with a playful laugh. She returned fire, their scrub match in the shallows transforming into another water fight, which was just beginning to pick up speed until they finally noticed the members of Team 7 standing nearby on dry land and looking at them oddly.

Freezing momentarily, the two of them then disengaged from their little game of tag, stood up fully out of the water and marched on out. Making squelching noises with every step, the pair soon came to stand in front of the three. Naruto moved further ahead with an apologetic look on his face.

"H-Hey, guys-"** BAM!** A fist to his skull deposited him into the ground, where he sat and nursed the pulsating bump that sprouted from his hair. "Ow! Sakura-chan?"

"YOU MORON!" the pink haired girl shouted down at him as he gazed up at her through a pained expression, "Do you know how worried we were about you?! We thought you were dead!"

Bewildered at first, Naruto then gave his teammates a blank look. Did he just hear her right, or was he still groggy from taking that club to the head? "Eh? You were… worried about me?"

Kakashi nodded affirmatively as he stepped forward, placing a hand on the injured kunoichi's shoulder and getting her to lower her fist. Upon calming the shaken Sakura down, the Jonin then addressed his other student, "Of course we were. You're our comrade, Naruto-kun. It's only natural that we became worried about you after seeing you fall into the rapids and disappear."

Puzzled, the jinchuriki panned across to Sasuke, who stared back at him with his usual, stoic expression before seeing him glance away defiantly. It was clear that out of all of them that the prodigy would be the most stubborn about this whole mess. "Don't mistake my part in this to be out of concern for you. I just didn't want you to go off and die on me before I got another chance to beat you myself."

Rolling his eyes, Naruto grinned at him, "Missed you too, teme." Pulling himself to his feet with the help of Kakashi, he then saw the eyes of his team fix on the girl standing behind him. Seeing that Fu was keeping herself back while sizing up the newcomers, the blonde then moved aside and moved on with introductions, "I made a new friend. This here is Fu-chan." He then glanced over at said girl. "Fu-chan, these are my teammates and sensei."

Looking between them, the green haired girl smiled warmly and saluted, "Hello."

Responding to her greeting, Kakashi waved back in his own characteristic manner, "Yo!"

"Fu-chan saved me from drowning and fixed me up," Naruto added, patting his stomach where he'd taken the hit before placing his hands on his hips. He backed up till he was standing beside the Taki Genin and beamed, "Pretty cool, huh? I never met anyone our own age who knew so much about using stuff from the forest to help heal people before. I was really lucky that she happened to be near."

Looking back pleasantly when he saw Naruto and Fu turn to each other and share a laugh, Kakashi then walked over to them and looked the newcomer from head to toe. Seeing she was wearing a headband aligning herself with _Takigakure_, the Jonin nodded in acknowledgement before placing a hand on his blonde student's head, "Thank you."

"It was my pleasure," Fu replied brightly.

"I would like to pay you back for what you did for my student, but unfortunately we're a day behind schedule. We need to return to our village as quickly as possible to make our report."

Blinking at this, the green haired kunoichi then let out a cry of alarm and stumbled back, startling all four members of squad seven at her unexpected reaction. "Damn! I forgot that I was on a mission too! Oh, oji-san is going to kill me!" Shaking off her owlish visage, Fu turned to Naruto and slapped her hands together in a pleading sign, "I'm sorry I can't stay any longer with you, Naruto-kun, but I had fun."

"Yeah. Me too," the blonde said while holding up a hand. "Write me a letter when you get home… and if you're ever in the neighborhood, feel free to stop by my place."

"In Konoha, right?" Fu asked, seeing her fellow jinchuriki nod. She then gave him two thumbs up, "OK! I'll be sure to write you." With a tip of her 'hat' and a series of quick bows to both Sasuke and Sakura, who returned them kindly, the girl then turned heel and dashed off into the forest. Before she was out of sight, she waved back to the bunch on the riverbank, "It was nice meeting you all!"

"Safe trip, Fu-chan!" Naruto called, watching as the girl leapt into the woods and vanished from sight.

Once all became quiet again, save for the sounds being emitted by the river behind them, Kakashi inhaled deeply before looking down at his students. He saw Sasuke and Sakura approach, lining up beside Naruto with the latter tapping the jinchuriki on the shoulder and sincerely asking if he was alright. After a quick banter, the Jonin scrubbed his head and cleared his throat to get their attention.

"Well… it was a vexing ordeal, but at least we got through it. I'm glad to see you're all okay," Kakashi exclaimed, his one eye cutting towards the jinchuriki, "You too, Naruto-kun."

Smiling at seeing her teammate's bright grin flicker into view, Sakura then looked back towards their team captain. "Who were those guys, sensei?" Her inquiry quickly earned the attention of the two boys, who also glanced to their instructor for an answer.

The Jonin slipped his hands into his pockets and looked seriously down at them, "Rogue shinobi from _Kirigakure_. They were hired to attack us."

Sasuke frowned deeply, "They mentioned they were after me? Any particular reason why?"

Sure, his family name and reputation were well-known. It didn't surprise the genius that a lot of people outside of his village would know him immediately if he was to introduce himself to them, but neither his name nor his heritage should have been reason enough for why dangerous shinobi like the ones from yesterday would be out for his life. Their actions were beyond absurd. He didn't antagonize those people or anything; they were just out to take him, but ended up engaging his team and seriously injuring two of them.

That was troublesome.

Kakashi, not wanting to tell them that he knew exactly who was behind the attack, considering they were still too young and that _**that**_ person was in a whole other ballpark, merely settled for the most reasonable course of action. He would give a detailed report to the Hokage later, and should instances like this involving Orochimaru escalate in the future, then and only then would the Jonin take steps against the threat.

For all he knew the Sannin was just poking his finger out and getting a taste of the meal. Time would only tell if he would be back to take a whole bite out of the dish.

"I'm not sure," Kakashi finally spoke, seeing his team deflate a little and looked at each of them hard. "Don't worry though, I'll find out who is responsible for this. We'll return to the village, and give our report to the Hokage. I'm sure he might know something."

"_**Yes, sensei,"**_ the three replied at once.

It had been a long three days and they were exhausted. All they wanted to do now was get some sleep in their own beds back home.

Kami knows what tomorrow would bring…

OOO

**Later that night…**

**Konohagakure…**

"You know… all this time I was under the impression that you were some invincible, super-powered being that fell from the skies and got lost wandering the planet's surface. After seeing you lay waste to so many enemies over the past couple of years, I'm a little bit surprised other people haven't started thinking that way as well," Tayuya exclaimed as she sat on the arm of the couch Naruto was lying across and watched as he massaged the bandaged area around his mid-section. "Looks like you're mortal after all, shithead. I'm glad."

The moment his team returned from their mission, the first thing Naruto did as soon as he got to his apartment was remove his shirt and jacket, and plop down on the couch for some rest and television. From there, when Tayuya joined him shortly thereafter and saw both his grievous injury and how worn he was, the boy then proceeded to tell her the tale of his first D-Rank mission outside of the village and what had transpired. While the girl initially expressed immediate concern for him around the point where he explained how he was nearly killed, she then relaxed when he briefed her on the rest of his story.

It had been a truly gripping and stirring adventure. Tayuya only wished that she'd been there to participate.

Naruto chuckled as he looked up at the red head, who started rubbing his scalp, "I'm no Mary Sue. If I was, and if I was some stupidly, over-powered being whose very presence struck fear into the hearts of other shinobi, then wouldn't I be Hokage already with dozens of beautiful women falling at my feet to serve up sumptuous feasts of wine and themselves to me?"

Tayuya shrugged her shoulders with a thoroughly amused look on her face, "Probably."

"Well… unfortunately I'm not. I'm just a kid with a blunt and eccentric personality, who's quick on his toes and knows how to throw a killer right hook," Naruto sighed, turning back to the television to see it was airing some cartoon about samurai. Since everything else was boring headlines and economics, this was the best he had. "Other than being a jinchuriki, I'm just your everyday blonde kid that lives in an apartment."

"Well, just be happy you were able to walk away from this one alive," Tayuya exclaimed happily, continuing to rub his scalp and earning a satisfied groan from the teen. She giggled at the affect she had over him. "You dumbass. Do you know how upset I'd be if I woke up one day and found out that you'd been killed on a mission?"

"Never gonna happen," the jinchuriki replied firmly. "I won't die and I will never give up; not until I become Hokage." He then sprouted a grin as he looked up at the girl. "I just need to get stronger… and fast enough so that I'll be able to prevent this from happening again." He held up his right and clenched it into a fist. "I'll get so fast, not even light will be able to keep up with me. Believe it."

Tayuya gazed at him, "With that attitude, I know you'll be able to do it, shithead. Fucking go for it."

"Yeah," Naruto cheered. He was about to sit up and celebrate his resolve properly, only to suddenly have Tayuya slide into the same couch beside him and snuggle up against his chest. The boy froze at her actions, and looked down at her in bewilderment. "Uhh… Tayuya-chan?"

The red head smiled up at him with a half-lidded gaze, "What? You don't want little old me sharing the same couch as you? I'm tired too, yah know." She then leaned up and pecked him on the side of the chin.

Surprised at first, upon seeing the girl's beautiful gaze fix on him and red appear in her cheeks, all resistance Naruto had prepared to mount against her faltered, and he beamed back at her. Running a hand through her hair, he then laid back and turned towards the TV, just as she did.

"I don't mind," Naruto whispered. He felt the girl grin against his chest as the pair laid there, huddled up against one another and watching the show play out on the magic box.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

* * *

**Author's Note:** Wow. This one took longer than I thought. Anyway, I give you the next chapter, since everyone has been looking forward to it.

And just for all those who are wondering whether the enemies in here were OCs, they're not. They were from one of the Naruto OAVs.

Furthermore, and I think I should clear the air a bit with some of the areas that might surprise some of you or upset you, see the following:

One area of interest was where Naruto took a hit and fell into a river after a three second fight. To all those fans out there who want to see Naruto winning all the time, that's _not_ my Naruto. If I had him win all of his fights like some super-powered being able to go toe to toe with Kakashi, that would make for a pretty shocking and boring story, and based on the information I provided I think his defeat at the hands of a JONIN level shinobi, say it with me now, JONIN, which I wrote in my story, fits the bill perfectly. You can assume he spun around at the same time the attack was thrown, and got hit when trying to perform a jutsu. Or he miscalculated. I showed he was mortal in this story. He nearly died, so he has limitations he needs to work on.

Second, Sakura's sudden show of 'Tsunade's strength', which is not Tsunade's strength by the way. What I merely established in the chapter was that Sakura, without training to control the chakra necessary to exert that kind of force, that she possesses the power punch of a fighter, like the very first time Makunoichi Ippo punched the training bag despite not actually having thrown a punch before and that he was only following simple direction based on textbook information, which is what Sakura did, and also reflects a small glimmer of talent outside of chakra control. It's just raw, brute strength she showcased, which I'm pretty sure is a characteristic of a lot of girls in anime, but I did it specifically for Sakura as a form of foreshadowing for her training in that area in years to come. She's also still really weak compared to Naruto and Sasuke as she just started training somewhat seriously. I figured people would have picked up on that when she got the shit kicked out of her by her opponent (who wasn't that strong mind you).

Third is probably Team 7s interactions and how easy-going they are with one another. As I've been establishing throughout the story thus far, Naruto has a much better relationship with several of the other characters in the story, starting from the day he knocked Sasuke's lights out with a single punch. You can assume from that point onwards without the need for excessive use of flashbacks and based on interactions with other characters that Sasuke may have developed a small amount of respect for Naruto that doesn't border on obsession, that he only wishes to fight with him in the future to test his skills, therefore the tension isn't that high between them. You can also say the punch back in their younger days literally knocked sense into him if you will. He still banters with Naruto and presents a negative to his positive, so you still evidently have a rivalry there that does not conflict with team activity, which they have silently agreed as men amongst men to put ahead of them, since Sasuke is smart and Naruto is less unreasonable. And I would think Sakura wising up thanks to the 'gentle' conversation she had with Tayuya would stick with people. In both canon and this story, she resolves to try and have a better relationship with Naruto and to treat him with more respect on the same day, and thanks to Naruto's slight change of character and his better interactions with others, would help speed things along the way they're going. They're not the perfect team. Their coordination isn't perfect as they still act too independently, but they're still getting there.

I'm not sure if this will enlighten others (since some may still also want to make some points of their own), but this is a project I really enjoy writing and want to entertain others with.


	10. Express Delivery

**Author's Note:** There's a minor problem with the uploading of this chapter, so if you get repeated alerts of chapters being updated, that's just me trying to fix the problem.

Other chapters on the way. This one is just being troublesome.

* * *

**NARUTO**

**Drifting**

_Express Delivery_

**Five weeks later…**

Tayuya leapt back to avoid a kick from her opponent and brought her flute around. Twirling it in her grip, she then held it up and used it to block a punch, the force of which caused her to skid back as Naruto had put a lot of weight behind it. The jinchuriki smirked when he pressed forward, but the girl held firm with her pipe and dug her feet in. For a musical instrument, it was pretty sturdy.

"Damn, Tayuya-chan. How strong _is_ your flute?" the boy asked, their arms trembling as they kept each other at bay.

The musician he was dueling smirked, "It's a war flute, dummy. Shinobi who use these in the field need to have an instrument that can take a lot of punishment. That's why these things are built solid and to last. Only strong jutsu can really damage them." Upon saying this, the girl leapt away at the exact same time her opponent did.

As soon as they landed and skidded to a stop, Tayuya sprang forward again and, brandishing her flute as a sort of stabbing tool, began thrusting at the boy with murderous precision. The jinchuriki swayed away from the first blow and began weaving oddly around the ones to follow. The girl led with her forward hand, using well-practiced taijutsu strikes taught to her by her sensei.

She had been instructed to slash at her target repeatedly to seal their counters, something she was not afraid to use against Naruto who started to back circles around the field while dodging.

At first it seemed like Tayuya had the edge, forcing the jinchuriki to retreat the way she was. However, even if it looked one-sided, the redhead was the one who was being led around, which had her grit her teeth in frustration when she sped up with shorter, more compact blows. _"Why can't I land any hits?"_ Swiftness increasing, she started adding kicks and more circular maneuvers, trying to cut off the area for him to use.

Unfortunately, Naruto was aware of her strategy and continued moving around her in unexpected directions. When he swayed, he spun on the spot, making a leading blow for Tayuya impossible when he managed to get behind her. The girl kicked at him, causing him to lean to the side and throw a counter. The redhead blocked it with her arm and threw a left jab, but was forced to block again when his right swung around her hit and threatened to slam across her face. A swift counter that missed and a retreat was her response.

"_Going close-quarters with him is ridiculous. Though my reaction time is way better than when we first started, it's impossible to hit him with conventional attacks,"_ Tayuya thought and took a crouching stance, holding her flute at her side like a kunai, ready to run through her opponent the moment he tried something.

Naruto smiled, _"She's good. Way better than any of the other kids in class. Sparring with me has really pushed her fighting skills and reflexes up several notches."_ The jinchuriki then dug his feet into the earth before dashing at her at blinding speed, catching the girl by surprise._ "Well then, how about this?"_

The red head threw both her arms up just in time to stop a dropkick Naruto sent straight down on top of her. How he was able to throw one in mid-sprint was beyond her, but his speed and power put behind it were unbelievable. The girl felt her body nearly bend under the impact while her feet sunk into the ground to the top of her soles. When she held her ground, she stepped forward with her right and sent a left kick straight up at him, but the jinchuriki jumped off the ground with his one foot and spiraled in the air in front of her. Just as she was coming at him with her attack, he suddenly stopped spinning and, suspended in the air upside-down, brought his hand around for a palm strike, a sight which alarmed the musician.

"Whoa!" Tayuya disengaged from her kick and slammed her attacking foot into the ground. She pushed off the grass as fast as she could and flew back, the exact same moment her opponent's strike brushed the air once occupied by her body. The red head skidded to a stop, guard outstretched and protecting her body as she saw the jinchuriki land with a light tap. "I saw that, shithead."

"Nice move," Naruto exclaimed with a grin. "You were able to spot my motion in the middle of my flip despite my trick move and speed. Your reaction time is spot on, Tayuya-chan."

The girl blushed at the compliment and nodded, "Th-Thanks, Naruto-kun."

Standing up, the boy nodded toward the girl while slipping his hands into his pockets. "I think we'll call it a day for now. Got any plans?"

"Well… I'm meeting up with my team a little later for some training. Genma-sensei is going to be sparring with all of us to work on strengthening our coordination when attacking as a group. This was a great warm up leading into it," Tayuya replied while beaming.

"Spar, huh?" the blonde chuckled.

The girl raised an eyebrow at him. "You're busy too?"

"Kakashi-sensei said he was going to be putting our team through a couple of drills to practice our squad's maneuvers for when we're out on the field. He mentioned something the other day about upgrading our tasks to a much higher level of mission soon." About time too. I mean… three weeks of those repetitive chores. It was starting to become a little bit dull doing the same stuff over and over. He was honestly getting a little tired of walking Inuzuka dogs.

They were seriously strong dogs … smart asses too from what he gathered when he sat down and chatted with them on their breaks. Apparently they really only appreciated their partners spending time with them and not smart-aleck brats. They were ninja hounds in training after all, so it made sense that they would be a bit cocky and prone to making the lives of Team 7 miserable.

Tayuya nodded and straightened to full height, pocketing her flute. "Same here. Genma-sensei told us that he's really keen on getting our group into some tougher assignments. I think we might be seeing our first C-Rank mission in the next month the way we're going." She clenched her fists in excitement.

Her roommate could barely contain his eagerness as well as he approached her, taking her by the arm and leading the way out of the area. "You're lucky. Our sensei hasn't even mentioned the idea of moving into a C-Rank mission yet. It's a little bit annoying."

"Be patient. I'm sure he'll come around… eventually," Tayuya giggled, wrapping her arms around Naruto's and allowing him to drag her along. The boy gazed down at her as she laid her head against his broad and comfortable shoulder. "Just rake in as many D-Rank missions as you can. The experience all adds up in the end so make each and every one of them count."

Naruto grinned and picked up the pace, "Hopefully they'll all amount to the next level of mission we're going to go on. I'll talk to the others and see if we can convince our teacher to upgrade us to a C-Rank as soon as possible."

"Best of luck then, shithead," Tayuya exclaimed, changing tactics and hopping up onto his back. The blonde stumbled forward a little bit startled, but managed to regain his balance and glance back at the sly smiling musician. "Carry me. I'm tired."

"Already? We've only been training for the last couple of hours." She was usually more energetic then this. Why was Tayuya being weird all of a sudden?

The girl gave him a pleading look, "Pretty please, Naruto-kun. My feet are sore."

Surprised by her tone of voice and taken in by her captivating expression beseeching his gentleman's side, the Genin quickly caved under the pressure and gave her a smile in return. With a courteous nod, he helped readjust their position and quickened his pace. "Alright then! Off to Ichiraku's!"

"Yay!"

XXX

**A couple days later…**

"Do you think Kakashi-sensei will take us on another long excursion outside of the village soon?" Naruto asked Sasuke and Sakura as they walked down the road together, having just gotten off another shift of work and looking forward to the rest period ahead. "It's been ages. I'm getting stagnant just running around the village doing nothing but ordinary chores."

Sasuke closed his eyes as they marched on in conference, "Don't know."

"Maybe he's keeping us back a bit after what happened on our last mission," Sakura suggested, looking between the boys before beaming across at the jinchuriki. "I don't know about you two, but I thought that was a pretty rough day for all of us. Since he's our teacher and everything, I think he got a little shaken up after seeing us get attacked like that… especially you, Naruto."

"Sensei doesn't need to worry about me. I'm built like a tank," the blonde replied, patting his abs proudly while turning skywards. "I can take anything and walk away from it."

Sasuke looked across at him. "How exactly _did_ you walk away from that last attack that guy threw at you?" Catching the blonde's attention, the genius continued. "I saw where you got hit. No way would a person have been able to survive something like that."

A little bit caught off guard by his teammates' sudden interest in his health insurance, Naruto feigned a look of confusion and shrugged, slipping his hands behind his head. "Don't know. Maybe my organs were all built to one side." Yeah, that was a really stupid answer. No way was Sasuke going to let that one lie from the way his face scrunched up in suspicion.

"Maybe that Fu girl used some kind of healing jutsu on you," Sakura suggested helpfully, drawing the genius's attention towards her instead. The girl dipped her head in a sort of shrug, "You said you were unconscious when she pulled you out of the river. Maybe she helped close that wound with a special technique to stop you from bleeding to death. The doctors said you were fine when you checked in with them."

"Yeah. Yeah. Perhaps you're right, Sakura-chan," Naruto chirped, beaming across at the girl for her reasoning.

Sasuke, though still a little bit unsure, allowed the topic to slide at that.

Perhaps his teammate was correct on that assessment. I mean, neither him, Sakura or Kakashi had been there to see exactly what had happened after their friend was pulled out of the stream and fixed up. Plus the patient himself had been out of it the entire time. From the look of confusion on Naruto's face and the reasons being thrown around between them, it was clear that whatever happened on that day would remain shrouded in secrecy into the foreseeable future.

It was an indisputable law of the world. Some secrets just weren't meant to be revealed. Only time would tell if that rule actually held firm.

"Enough about that," Sakura exclaimed, looking up at Sasuke fondly. "What do you think Kakashi-sensei has planned next?"

"Hopefully something more exciting," Naruto said, stretching out and glancing back at his friends with his characteristic grin in play. "I want to get down and dirty, like, right now!"

Sasuke leaned away from him with a bit of a frown, "Don't say that while you're standing so close to me, dobe."

"What?! You got a problem with the way I say things, Sasuke?"

"I have a problem with everything you say. Not just that."

"You want to fight, teme? Huh? Huh?" Naruto asked, half-joking and half-serious as he tried to make himself look big in front of the Uchiha, puffing his chest out and bumping into him at the same time. When Sasuke looked away and grunted, the blonde grinned triumphantly and backed down, "Yeah. That's what I thought."

"Why do you have to be so annoying?"

"I'm only annoying to you since all you ever do, is play that same broken record you've had for the past few years. Come on." The jinchuriki nudged him in the side. "Live a little."

"Hmph."

Sakura shook her head at the pair and sighed, "Stop bickering you two. Everyone's looking at us." She gestured to the villagers around them, who were watching the squad march on by with bewildered and odd expressions in play. "Be nice."

"I'm trying to, but Sasuke's not making it easy," Naruto replied brightly.

The prodigy smirked, "Quiet down, idiot…"

"Make me!"

XXX

**A few weeks later…**

The Kyuubi grumbled impatiently as he laid his head across his arms and glared down at the bothersome child sitting in front of his cage.

Even though it appeared like nothing had been going on between them, for the last couple of hours since falling asleep, Naruto had been regaling the giant fox in his various tales of gallantry and good old-fashioned ridiculousness from the day preceding. He did this every time he dropped into bed and nodded off. He would become aware of his consciousness, pop down into the recesses of his mind, sit in front of the giant gates of hell, and drawl on like a radio during news hour.

And, just like every other night, the boy wouldn't stop talking even to draw breath, and the giant demon of malevolence, as per the terms and agreements of their routine, would get annoyed and try to ignore him.

Unfortunately for him, it wasn't that easy to try and block out the voice of the loudest kid in the village, so basically the Kyuubi had no choice but to listen and nod vaguely toward every little detail spouted from the human adrenaline shot.

How did it ever come down to this; that he would become babysitter to the world's most troublesome, airheaded future Hokage the village had ever seen, or so Naruto kept telling him?

"_**Why do you bother me with your incessant jabbering, you worthless brat?"**_ the Kyuubi asked after seeing the child grin up at him after telling him about the recent training session he'd had with Sasuke and Sakura. _**"All of this is meaningless to me. I can see everything that you see. I can hear everything that you hear. Everything that you experience and do in your miserable, day to day life, I am forced to watch and take in… however boring or monotonous it may be."**_

"You say that, but I know you enjoy my stories, especially when I dress them up a little," Naruto exclaimed, still grinning from ear to ear.

"_**Hmph,"**_ the fox grunted, shutting his eyes.

"Anyway, when I met up with Tayuya's team later on we all went out for dango and stuff. Shiho's treat! Kaede-kun really wanted to know how to make the ones sold at the store and as soon as we ordered, he asked the chef for some pointers. Boy… you should have seen him; he was so excited. He took out this little diary from his pouch and wrote down everything the cook had to say. Every word, every instruction, every little detail. I've never seen anyone so excited about food before in my life," Naruto chuckled, throwing his hands up in exclamation. "Except maybe Choji, but I bet even that guy would gag on Kaede's cooking. It's horrible."

"_**Yes… it's absolutely tragic,"**_ the Kyuubi replied sarcastically. He'd seen the results. It made him laugh.

"When we sat down at the table we talked and talked for hours. It was great! The missions Tayuya-chan's team went on today were so different from ours. Kakashi-sensei gave our team six scrolls this morning. Six! That's more than our average of four. But it makes sense seeing as that he's bumping up our assignment levels little by little, so things are bound to get tougher the further along we go," Naruto said loudly before sighing. Taking in a few deep breaths, he then straightened up and continued. "We had to find an ostrich, take it back to its home, got into trouble, then came back and searched for items people had lost in the past month. After that we had to chase a stupid cat named Tora. Boy… that guy had some seriously mean claws."

The Kyuubi grunted, ear twitching. _**"Yes I know. I healed you afterwards."**_

"Yeah, yeah! Thanks for that by the way. The guy was really upset when we finally managed to catch him. He said his master was always touching him, picking him up, hugging him too tightly and dressing him up in all these weird cat clothes when they were alone. That's why he ran away. It was terrible. I could see why the poor thing didn't like that lady very much; she seemed so needy. I tried to tell her not to play so rough with him, but I don't think she heard me," Naruto said, folding his arms and legs and looking away with his characteristic, squint-eyed expression. "Life for some animals is hard."

"_**You're telling me,"**_ the fox replied with venom, referring to his own predicament. Naruto however ignored the growing frustration in his voice and continued.

"So afterwards, Tayuya-chan told me about the missions she and her team did. They were pretty good too. They had to trim hedges, paint an entire building, then go over to the Yamanaka store to help deliver a shipment to the gardens for the summer festival! I bet this year is going to be great! I'm going to take Tayuya-chan, Sakura and even teme! We're all going to go! I just need to find a suitable robe for-"

"_**ENOUGH!"**_ the giant fox finally barked, startling the boy when he reared his head and glared down at him. His blood red eyes pulsing with veins conveyed his aggravation at the child's presence and showed how perturbed he actually was. _**"Just shut your mouth, brat. I'm done with your pointless drivel."**_

Blinking a few times, Naruto smiled, "Don't be so mad. This is fun."

"_**No. It's not. You're testing my patience with your stupid stories and 'impressing' me with your pathetic friends,"**_ the fox growled, sending waves of killing intent at the child. _**"It's sickening. And secondly, why the hell do you keep coming down here to talk to me? WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?"**_

Looking up at the fox's angry visage and hate filled eyes, Naruto sat silently for a bit and thought about exactly why he kept coming down here to talk with it.

Well… for starters, after learning about the Kyuubi and the seal that was keeping it inside of him, the blonde first figured that maybe he could make good out of a bad situation by coming to speak with the demon itself, to try and come to terms with things. He knew nothing about his predicament, he didn't know why the fox was sealed inside of him in the first place except for the fact that it was the Fourth Hokage who did it, and he didn't know what to do about it. Oh sure, he was going to keep it a secret, but there was something about it that was nagging him.

It was that sixth sense he had that told him whenever danger was near or something was off. Call it a habit he'd developed from hanging out with forest dwellers for so many years.

Secondly, and Naruto came to realize this himself, was that being stuck in here all this time, on his own, without anyone to talk to, the jinchuriki thought the fox was lonely. He was agro, short-tempered and frustrated. Clearly he didn't like being in here and that he had some unresolved issues that he just kept buried away in the darkest parts of his soul. Naruto thought that maybe if he could cheer him up, make nice with him and spend some time with him, he'd be able to get him to open up a little.

Like he said, it was worth a shot.

"_**Well?"**_ the Kyuubi growled impatiently.

"I just want to hang out with you, furball. That's all," Naruto shrugged.

"_**Don't play games with me! You're too far beneath me to try getting the best of the great Kyuubi no Yoko. You may act like you care about others, like you're kind and friendly, but I know what the humans of this world are really like. I know how you view us demons. You're all the same,"**_ the Kyuubi barked, _**"You're spiteful, arrogant, selfish, ignorant, and cruel. I've seen it all before; what your hatred is capable of. I despise all you humans and laugh at your pitiful contempt for life."**_

Naruto blinked as he listened, watching the fox grin at him with its canines in full view.

"_**You fear us bijuu. You treat us as beasts and nothing more than mindless beings meant to grant you humans power. That's all we are to you. Tools meant to be used. There's no good in any of you. There's nothing but greed, abhorrence and darkness. So tell me, boy… what do you really want from me?"**_

Remaining silent for the next few minutes, Naruto suddenly hopped to his feet and slowly walked up to the cage. The giant fox watched his every step intently, raising an eyebrow when the boy suddenly placed his hand against it and leaned in. Giving the Kyuubi a blank stare, the blonde then gave him a sad smile and tilted his head.

"I just want to be friends with you, Kyuubi," Naruto exclaimed, causing the fox to visibly recoil. "You wanted to know that badly? Well, there you go. That's my answer."

Gritting his teeth, the nine-tails breathed on him, _**"That's a lie. Don't joke around, you retch!"**_

"I'm not joking around. I'm being absolutely serious," Naruto said loudly, his grip against the bar tightening as he gazed up at the demon trying to drill a hole into him with his eyes. "You were locked in here all on your own for all these years with no one to talk to and nowhere to go. It must have been hell for you. I should know because I know how much it sucks being alone, being stuck in a hole and being filled with hate. After meeting you and seeing how upset you were, I just wanted to do something about that." The jinchuriki nodded affirmatively at his answer, his expression brightening when an idea came to him. "Yeah. That's it. I know what I want to do; I want to get rid of all that hate inside of you."

The Kyuubi's eyes widened as he glared down at the runt, who continued grinning fearlessly up at him. After what felt like an eternity of silence, the giant fox sneered. _**"Really…? You want to do that?"**_

"Mm," Naruto nodded once before moving off of the bars. "It's been rough with you inside of me, yeah. But it sucks being filled with hate all the time. Believe it." He backed away while radiating his characteristic aura. "Sure, a lot of people are scared of you guys and hate you because of the things you've done, but there are others out there who are different… people like _me_. I don't care what you've done, what you are or what you look like on the outside. Being hated and being filled with hate is wrong… and I want to change that. You can doubt me all you want, but I'm sure I'll get through to you eventually, dattebayo."

The Kyuubi huffed, watching the child move away till he sat back down on the water's surface. What followed immediately after that was another staring contest with one side trying to size the other up and the other just looking cheerful. Of course, while the Kyuubi was still glowering at the boy, deconstructing his words and trying to figure out his motives, Naruto just smiled warmly towards the giant animal and waited for him to say something.

When a certain amount of time passed, the fox grunted and leered, _**"You're one piece of work. You know that?"**_

Naruto's glow increased tenfold, "Right back at yah." After staring at each other for a little while longer, the blonde then looked down at the fox's arms, the place where the entity would normally rest his head and stare at him whenever he came to visit. His eyes then trailed over his wrists down to his paws, where… wait!

The blonde visibly jerked before scrutinizing the Kyuubi's limbs more carefully.

Didn't foxes normally have paws?

The jinchuriki stared long and hard at the folded arms, attracting the Kyuubi's attention. _**"What?"**_

Unflinching in his deadpanned expression, the blonde raised his right and pointed.

"Why do you have man hands?"

The Kyuubi immediately bristled at that question. _**"I WILL DESTROY YOU, YOU SMART ASS!"**_

"No you won't."

"_**WANNA BET?"**_

"You're too much of a softie," Naruto exclaimed before a sly grin spread across his lips, "Kyuu-chan with man hands."

"_**THAT'S IT!"**_ the giant fox shouted before lunging at the bars. Gnawing at them with his teeth for a few seconds, he then yelled in frustration and tried to pry it open with his claws. _**"You're a dead man, Naruto!"**_

The blonde laughed good-naturedly at the fox's reaction, "Love hanging out with you too, furball."

XXX

**A week later…**

Hiruzen Sarutobi was just in the middle of sorting through the large collection of scrolls and mission reports laid out in front of him, at the same time signing off on the one that had just been handed over to him by Kurenai and her team, before a knock on the door interrupted him. When all eyes turned and fixed on the entrance, they saw it pushed open before a cheerful Naruto strolled in wearing his usual fox-like grin and hand raised in greeting. Kiba smirked when he recognized his old rival from school, Shino pushed up his glasses and Hinata blushed brilliantly under his radiant gaze.

"Hey, Hokage-jiji! Can I come in?"

The Third smiled pleasantly when he saw who it was popping in to visit, "Of course, Naruto-kun. Just give me a moment." Rolling up the scroll on his desk and sealing it, he then handed it to the patiently waiting Kurenai, who took the item from him with a courteous nod. "You're all set. I wish you and your team the best of luck."

"We'll be careful, Hokage-sama," Kurenai bowed before quickly ushering her squad out the door.

Seeing the group coming his way, Naruto stepped aside to allow them passage. Shino nodded to him when he walked by, Hinata shied away while uttering a gentle 'hello Naruto-kun,' and Kiba stopped in front of the jinchuriki and held his fist up. The blonde grinned and bumped knuckles with his academy rival before doing the whole twisting motion followed by the explosion routine, which they acted out with vocals and action.

"My man, Naruto!"

"Kiba! We'll catch up later, alright!"

"Will do!" the Inuzuka laughed. He continued on while waving over his shoulder, shortly followed by Kurenai who closed the door behind them.

Happy to have bumped into one of the other graduating groups here, Naruto then turned his attention to the mission desk and approached it. In the time it took for him to reach it, Hiruzen had already sorted through several more scrolls, signed them, boxed them, and upon setting them aside, turned to acknolwedge the boy's presence fully. When the jinchuriki stopped, he smiled and waved, "Yo!"

"What can I do for you today, Naruto-kun?" the Third asked curiously, lacing his fingers together in front of him with his pipe sitting comfortably in his mouth.

"Before I say anything, do you think we could get a little more privacy here?" the blonde asked gently while gesturing towards the leader's' staff walking about. He then placed his hand over his gut and rubbed, "I've got a bit of a stomach problem. It's… a little embarrassing to talk about." It was a half-lie. He wasn't embarrassed to talk about it; he was just uncomfortable talking about this particular thing when there was other people standing around, particularly people who probably didn't know about his 'condition.'

The old man's smile dropped a little. "Naruto… I thought we agreed that I would talk to you about it _later_."

"And we did… and to be fair it has been _later_. Two years later to be exact," the jinchuriki replied cheerfully, "There are some things I'd like to ask you that are really important." He saw a contemplative look come over the old man as he mulled over his request, which the boy knew would take him quite a while and decided to add a little more haste to the process, "It's pretty cool though, right? I mean… how can a big orange furball the size of a mountain be jammed inside of my stomach of all places? It seems physically impossible."

Hiruzen's eyes widened when the boy said that, his mouth dropping open and almost losing his lit pipe all over his documents. Upon processing the child's statement at light speed, the Third then ordered everybody out of the room, with Iruka smiling at his student on passing and giving him a wave in greeting, which Naruto gladly returned. Once everyone was out, the Hokage then gave the boy his full and undivided attention.

"How did you find out?"

Scratching his head, Naruto shrugged, "Don't know. I fell asleep after a night on the town and bam! I found myself in a sewer surrounded by crappy lighting, with a giant gate at the end, with an enormous cat with man hands sitting behind the bars."

"_**I hate you,"**_ the Kyuubi growled inside his head.

"No you don't," Naruto grinned back at his stomach. When Hiruzen raised an eyebrow at the blonde going off kilter for a moment, the jinchuriki panned up and continued, "Honestly though, the place could use some tuning up."

The Hokage sighed and rubbed his temple, looking across at the boy incredulously. "Stuff like this normally doesn't just happen to people, Naruto-kun."

"Well, I'm not a normal person and I certainly don't act like one. I live in the extraordinary. You know that more than anyone, oji-san. Except maybe Tayuya-chan. She lives with me."

Hiruzen furrowed his brow at that before giving a weak smile, "Well, in any case you managed to figure out the true purpose behind the seal across your stomach. The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox is locked away inside of you in a pocket dimension created through the powerful _Hakke no Fuin Shiki_, which the Fourth Hokage used in order to prevent the demon from destroying the village and running amok."

The boy tilted his head curiously as he listened to the Third speak, "I see. But… why?"

The elder closed his eyes, "The details of the event are sketchy. What we do know for certain is that the Kyuubi managed to escape from the seal binding it inside of its last jinchuriki and began attacking the village in a rage. It just appeared out of nowhere that night and started to destroy everything in sight. It took all of our forces and power just to drive it out of the village and into the forests."

The sheer amount of overwhelming force the Third was describing to him had Naruto in awe. It certainly rounded out the answer as to why people were so skittish around him. The villagers who were there at the time or remembered that night well must have experienced the Nine-Tails' power first hand. They'd watched their village torn apart by a massive fox, which also attacked their comrades and loved ones and killed many people in the process. This realization had Naruto deflate quite a bit as the full magnitude of what he was hearing finally got through.

"Whoa…"

"Yes. It was a dreadful night for all of us. In order to save the village from total destruction and to preserve the balance of tailed beasts throughout the shinobi nations, the Fourth Hokage sacrificed himself to seal the fox inside of you. By doing so he saved the lives of his people, the land, and restored order to our village. Now you can see why he is celebrated as one of Konoha's greatest Kages," Hiruzen said with a proud smile. Though he left a lot of the details of that night out, all he wanted to do was give it to the boy straight. The elder figured that learning of the Kyuubi and the reason for its sealing inside of him was more than enough for Naruto. Information on his parents could be saved for another time…

That is if he didn't press the issue.

Naruto patted his stomach, where he knew the Nine-Tails was resting and listening. Staring down at it for a minute or so, the boy then smiled and looked up. "Why me, though?" Hiruzen blinked, concealing most of his surprise behind it and a stoic visage. "Why was I chosen to carry the Kyuubi?"

"That… I'm afraid is a question I cannot answer for you, Naruto-kun," Hiruzen replied, seeing bewilderment and confusion come over the blonde's face. In order to settle the youngster's troubled mind, the elder then looked towards him with a more serious gaze, "It is for someone else."

"Huh? Who?"

"You'll meet this person soon enough," Hiruzen replied while giving the boy a firm stare. "He's a big, flamboyant man with long spiky, white hair, wears wooden sandals and goes by the name Jiraiya. He uses toads as his summons. If you find him, I'm sure he'll tell you everything you need to know about your situation and answer all of your questions." He'd made a promise to the Fourth that he would tell the boy all he could in due course and that he would leave most of that task to Jiraiya, who wished to carry much of that burden as well.

Naruto's expression brightened, "Sweet! Where can I find him?"

"He's out of the village at the moment, but he'll be dropping by before the Chunin Exams coming up in a few months time." Though the man was always on the move, he was still reliable. That's why Hiruzen didn't have to worry about his student not showing up because he most certainly would. The kid's timing was impeccable.

Pumping his fist, Naruto gave the elder a wild grin before turning heel and running towards the door. Before leaving through it, the blonde turned to the village leader and gestured gratefully towards him. "Thanks so much, Hokage-jiji! Don't worry. I'll keep an eye out for the guy!"

"Take care, Naruto-kun," the old man waved. The moment the door shut, Hiruzen breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back in his chair, holding his pipe firmly as he then gazed towards the ceiling. His expression became one of deep thought and meditation as he contemplated the matters that had appeared in the wake of the young Uzumaki's surprise visit._ "I'm sure that Naruto will be fine. The boy's a strong one with a firm will and a good heart, and doesn't appear to be showing any signs of being manipulated by the Kyuubi in the slightest."_ Though that sudden trail off midway through their conversation was a bit odd, it wasn't something to be truly concerned about.

But was he actually talking back to the fox?

Hiruzen raised both eyebrows as he analyzed the incident a little more carefully. Never had he ever expected the Kyuubi to actually respond to the boy from just a mere joke. The blonde had managed to crack one out in the middle of his explanation to the Hokage and the fox apparently said something back to him. Even though the elder didn't hear anything, he was still able to see the boy's' expressions and hear his speech patterns change.

In any case, the Third initially believed the demon would be more hostile towards his host and prone to trying to gain control over him, as history with its other jinchuriki pretty much supported this claim.

But no. That wasn't the case. Naruto was actually bonding with the fox to the point where he was able to speak with it as an equal and that they were able to take shots at one another. It was so sudden too. Fascinating.

"_Oh… that's right,"_ Hiruzen smiled when a new thought overtook him and replaced his previous debate concerning Naruto, _"The five Kage are supposed to be convening for this year's Chunin exams soon. I'm certainly looking forward to this one."_

The biggest Chunin exams in history was coming up shortly; one that was going to be held between all five of the great shinobi nations and its smaller neighbors. Hell yeah did the old man have a reason to be excited.

Hiruzen though managed to buffet his eagerness through a veil of calm and professionalism, and continued to sit alone in the room with a small smile in play and pipe in hand.

XXX

**Two days later…**

"Jab! Jab! Right! Jab! Hook! Elbow! Right!" Naruto shouted, backing up as he called the punches for Sakura to throw as she hammered away at the wooden blockers he was shifting for targets. Grinning after receiving the desired hits, he dashed quickly to the side, not too fast that the girl lost sight of him completely but enough to make her work in pursuing. As anticipated, she cut him off, with the blonde keeping on his toes and running a circle around her so that she moved with him. "Jab, right, uppercut, kick!"

Loud cracks rang out as Sakura, biting down hard, twisted in with blows that hit Naruto's pads hard and shook him with every impact. From the amount of sweat pouring down her face, the way her expression was scrunched up and the sounds she exerted with each blow, it was clear that the exercise they were going through was working her to the bone. This was exactly what Naruto intended to do; to give the girl more experience in combat against an opponent and to give her a feel for technique while under pressure. She couldn't do that adequately while training on her own, but with her teammates that was a different story.

It was a habit they'd fallen into over the recent weeks, where the team would get together and hash it out at their best. They would take turns switching between each other to help work on their skills and abilities, most predominantly their weaknesses. While a couple had a lot more work to do than others, every session was worthwhile and valued greatly amongst all three of them. Speaking of which, the entirety of Team 7 was currently occupying the clearing of Training Ground 3 and were going through the usual drills. Kakashi had taken Sasuke off to the side to work on his basics, since it was the best way to encourage a genius to focus on keeping their skills polished, and Naruto was working with Sakura on her taijutsu.

She may have been less adept as both the Uchiha and the jinchuriki at the beginning and lacked confidence in her own abilities to apply theory, but thanks to her touch up sessions with Kakashi and hard runs with Naruto, she was getting all of her material in stride.

Much to Naruto's surprise, her development was coming along just as well as Tayuya's. It had him scratching his head as to the reason why.

Taking a few hard hits that drove him back, Naruto then leapt away for space and held his ground, positioning his left pad low and right up high. "Body shot to finish! Give me your best!"

Sakura, grinding her feet into the ground, sprang forward in a rush. As soon as she got within range, she reacted just in time to duck the right counter Naruto threw, having become weary of it after getting hit by it so many times times, and took aim at the pad held over his side. Going in so low that it would be impossible to avoid her, the pink haired girl twisted in and threw a killer uppercut that lifted the blonde off his feet. A loud bang rang out when she landed the hit, followed shortly by a tap of Naruto landing back on solid ground with a pained grin.

The two stepped away from each other, Sakura swaying a little before collapsing to her hands and knees. Hair and face dripping, and clothes bathed in sweat, the girl panted raggedly and looked up to see Naruto smirk and inspect his wooden blockers.

The faces of the protective gear had filed away much to his surprise, and there were deep indents in both of them. It was a good thing he'd reinforced them because Sakura was developing some really hard punches. After shaking off from the last hit, Naruto easily removed the pads and slipped them under his arm. When he did, he looked down at the kunoichi to see her breathing heavily and still on the ground, coaxing a chuckle from him.

"I think that's enough for one day."

"Y-Yeah," Sakura wheezed, smiling up at the Genin, "Thanks… Naruto." She then dropped her head and allowed her sweat to run down to the grass freely.

Giving his teammate a moment to regain her bearings, Naruto then decided to address an interesting fact he'd discovered while he was holding pads for her. He chose not to say anything for a bit since she was clearly exhausted, but after the appropriate amount of time had passed he figured he'd been left in suspense long enough. "Your speed and technique have gotten way better since the first time we did this. Not only that, the strength in your punches is able to remain consistent throughout the entire session. Even when you're tired you keep coming at me with a lot of bite."

"I've… always had… a strong arm," Sakura panted.

"Yeah, but your stamina isn't really up to snuff yet. We're going to have to continue working on that," Naruto pointed, tilting his head.

The kunoichi chuckled when she heard him say that. "You're going to make me keep doing this until I get as energized as you? Aren't you?"

A shrug was Naruto's response. "If you want to."

Sakura smiled under her mess of hair. "I'm a stubborn girl, so I guess I'm going to give it my best shot no matter what I say."

Naruto laughed and dropped the pads on the grass beside him, looking up to see Sasuke still sparring hard with Kakashi not too far from their position. The Jonin was really taking it easy on the genius, who was apparently trying his hardest to land a hit on the damn guy. That was pretty much the noticeable difference between them and the masked instructor; a massive gap in skill, experience and shinobi-know-how.

"Still, you're doing pretty damn well for a girl who says she's been dieting for most of her weeks in the academy. I figured that you'd have been so focused on what you ate on a daily basis that you wouldn't have had the time to work on hitting as hard as you do," Naruto exclaimed off-handedly. Perfect technique aside with momentum to generate power, her show of strength from before had been quite a pleasant surprise.

Blinking a little, the girl gave a small sigh of resignation before looking back up towards her partner, showing him a nervous smile. "Actually… to tell you the truth… I never _was_ able to diet properly…"

"Hm?" Naruto cut down to her in surprise. "What do you mean?"

Sakura shrugged and pushed herself to her feet. "Ino tried it. Knowing her she got it down pat, but I never did. My body just couldn't take not eating and my parents practically force-fed me every night. All of that talk about dieting back at the academy… heh… that was all just talk." She placed her hand on her hip and smiled across at Naruto after dusting herself down. "I would stop eating every so often, but I couldn't do it for too long. My body just couldn't handle not getting energy."

"Really?" The boy raised an eyebrow in interest.

Before Sakura could say anything else, they were suddenly interrupted by Sasuke wandering over and entering their circle. The raven haired genius, looking pretty grimy and grungy from his training session, gestured over his shoulder toward their instructor standing in the distance and reading from his orange book. "You're up, Sakura."

Beaming, the kunoichi stretched her arms out and dashed off, calling thanks back to Naruto for his help before making her way towards their teacher. When she jogged a fair way out of ear shot, Sasuke decided to step over to his jinchuriki rival, where they both stood and watched the girl confront her teacher to get a rundown on their segment. Their moment of pause gave the two boys a small space of time to chat.

"Hey, Sasuke."

"Yeah?" the prodigy replied, not needing to turn to see the serious look on Naruto's face.

"You've noticed it too, haven't you?"

"That Sakura is talented?" The Uchiha nodded as they watched Sakura take a position a little ways out from Kakashi as they finally gave their training time a green light. It was a ninjutsu session for her today, and her teacher was going to help her to develop something new. "Yeah, I know."

"And here I thought she was only book smart. No; she actually has some natural talent in her body for hard punching," Naruto replied, not even taking a second to look away as he watched the girl fly through hand seals before vanishing in a puff of smoke, leaving a log behind in her place before she appeared behind her teacher and attacked him. When their dance finally started up, the jinchuriki glanced over to Sasuke. "She's no genius like you, but she's pretty close."

"Shinobi can be naturally talented in a lot of different ways," Sasuke informed a-matter-of-factly with a frown. "You can be a well-rounded genius; someone who doesn't need to work on their ninjutsu or taijutsu that often because they're gifted with the ability to become strong through minimal effort. You could be talented for theory and for working out the best strategies in a heartbeat, while at the same time lack physical fitness. You can be a bloodline user and _extremely_ talented; able to use the skills given to you with very little exertion and fight on the same level as a Jonin. Or you can be gifted with ridiculous speed, reflexes, timing, or, in Sakura's case, physical strength, and be smart enough to apply it in battle."

"Sakura-chan's been so focused on other aspects in her life though that she never took the time to focus on polishing her skills or work on applying them," Naruto said while folding his arms. "She said she found it hard to diet and that her body practically forced her to eat, so basically all those times she said she dieted she was actually lying to appear more feminine to others. I'm guessing even with trying to eat less that she's able to store lots of energy in her system to give her the boosts of strength that she has, which explains why it's murder to fight her up close. She has a wicked swing."

Sasuke nodded in understanding; figuring it was something along those lines. "Because she'd been so focused on so many useless things, her stamina, confidence and fighting ability deteriorated in the academy. With her talent, if she'd had just focused more on the physical side of things and practiced instead of worrying about her appearance; she would have been something incredible."

Naruto grinned, "She can _still_ be something incredible. Sakura-chan just needs some time to catch up."

The pair stood in silence for the next minute or so, watching Kakashi slowly retreat under Sakura's assault before knocking her to the ground. This didn't stop the kunoichi from getting back up and retaliating, forcing the Jonin to move some more and keep his distance, even though he was still reading absently from his book.

After watching for a little while longer, Sasuke turned to Naruto and cracked his neck. After which he then assumed a fighting stance. "So it's ninjutsu today, right?"

Immediately becoming excited from that question, the jinchuriki rounded on his rival and also took a firm stance, illustrating his intentions, "I was hoping it was. You're the perfect guy to turn to for this stuff, teme. It's not fun if my targets can't dodge right."

"Let's just get this over with so I can get back to figuring out the perfect way to beat you. Seeing how you operate… that shouldn't take very long."

"After all these years, you still haven't figured out a way to beat me, and I doubt you ever will. Dream on if you think that it's going to be easy," Naruto shot back.

Exchanging cocky smirks, the pair then sprang away from one another, the Uchiha flying through hand seals and the jinchuriki forming his cross-finger hand seal to counter.

Though not the full-on rematch that they wanted since it was strictly going to be ninjutsu today, it was still a desirable test to see where they stood against each other.

XXX

**A week later…**

Naruto and Tayuya, who had just gotten off of a long, early morning training session with each other, were on their way back to the village toward the hot springs to have a nice refreshing bath after a trying few hours of breathtaking exercises. Since they'd both been driving their techniques into the ground since before the sun started to rise, the two of them were pretty worn for wear, even if one of them didn't show it. Though Naruto admitted to being a little winded, he was for the most part fine. His training partner on the other hand was looking a bit more ragged.

"Man, who knew controlling a massive marionette made up of sand bags and stitches could be so draining," Tayuya breathed in exhaustion, referring to the new technique she'd recently developed and had been practicing for the past two hours. "Getting that big-ass puppet to move is no joke."

"I think it's pretty neat though. I didn't know you could use your music to move things, Tayuya-chan," Naruto replied, looking across at the girl to see her rub the back of her hand against her cheek to wipe away sweat and dirt.

The girl smiled at him, "Me neither. But hey! It works." She pulled out her flute and looked down at it. "Music is soul and I use chakra in conjunction _with_ my music, so by controlling the flow of musical notes and chakra, I can give 'life' to anything I choose. I think I'll even be able to take control of people some day if I work hard enough…"

Naruto, blinking at that shared thought, chuckled nervously when he was finally able to process the idea in his head. "Man. That'd be pretty scary."

"Yeah, but I think it can be pretty cool too; taking control of someone else's body before they have a chance to use any jutsu or attacks. It's the ultimate stalling and redirection tactic." Not to mention the best attacks were normally the ones you didn't see coming; fact.

"If you keep working hard the way you are now, then I know you'll get it down pat in no time," Naruto said with certainty and confidence.

"Damn straight. I'm not stopping till I've mastered every flute technique possible. But I'll try not to stick to the one specialty. I want to get strong in other areas too so that I don't become a burden when the time comes to it."

"You're not a burden, Tayuya-chan. You're incredible already!"

Tayuya, blushing, bumped him in the side with her hip, "N-No I'm not, you jerk."

"But it's true. I mean, yeah, I don't think it would do anyone any good simply sticking to one strength. Unless you're super good at the thing that you do best and can beat anyone regardless of your weaknesses, then I'm sure yo-WHOA!" Naruto and Tayuya jumped out of the way when a barrage of shuriken suddenly flew at them from the forest to their right, impaling the tree they had just been walking by and, following the sharp thumps, brought a dead silence to the area. When the two kids peered from around the trunks they'd managed to hide behind, they glared into the brush to see what or who the hell had decided to attack them.

"Sneaky. I'm assuming they didn't want to be found out since I can't really sense well from up wind. But I got them."

Tayuya frowned and looked up at Naruto. "What can you see? Your senses are a lot sharper than mine."

"One enemy," Naruto replied, crouching low and placing his hand on the ground. Since developing this technique after watching how cats, deer, foxes and other animals reacted to the presence of other creatures hiding in the area, his ability at using this particular skill had increased significantly over the years. He could practically reach out even further and more accurately with it then before. "No… wait… two. One's up high at two o'clock… the other is twelve o'clock, ground floor."

"I'm guessing the one that attacked us is on the floor. It was a straight shot and a good one." The kunai had impaled the trees half-way up the blades and had missed them by an inch. That was a seriously good shot and a strong arm. "Distance?"

"Sixty meters."

"Seriously? Son of a bitch," Tayuya said in amazement. That was a fantastic shot even if they missed. Hopefully whoever it was that tried to turn them into kunai pincushions missed them on purpose. Shaking her head, the musician then glared around the trunk, "Oi! Shit for brains! Do you know how close you came with those things?! You nearly took our heads off, you twat!" Of course the best thing for her to probably do at this point was to try and stay out of sight without giving away her position, but she couldn't help it. Some smart ass, probably a shinobi from their village, had tried to kill them, and there was no way in hell she was going to stand there and take it without returning some abuse of her own. "Come out and apologize you fucking cock sucker!"

"Geez, Tayuya-chan, why not go out and beat them to death already?" Naruto chuckled with an amused grin.

The girl pulled up her flute and prepared to give their attackers the best damn concert she could perform, "Oh trust me, I will. Just give me a sec." She licked her lips and took a deep breath.

Before she could get her counterattack underway though, another voice, a girl's voice, suddenly flooded into their midst. "Hey! Are you guys Konoha shinobi?"

Blinking, Naruto looked over his shoulder into the undergrowth and frowned, "Of course we are! We're Genin! Who else would we be?"

"Really? Ah, shit!"

"See Tenten! I told you they were friendly!"

"Shut up, Lee! I didn't know. I thought it was a bear."

Tayuya's eye twitched. "A bear?" Appearing flabbergasted at first, her shocked look then deteriorated into one of sheer outrage and blind anger. With an irate growl, the red head then stomped out from behind her tree, "ARE YOU IMPLYING THAT I'M FAT YOU HORSE FUCKING, CUNTMUN-" She was suddenly grabbed from behind by Naruto slapping his hand over her mouth and lifting her off the ground with his other arm wrapped around her waist. The girl kicked and flailed to break out of his grip, but the boy kept a tight hold of her.

"Calm down, Tayuya-chan! It was just an accident!"

The girl managed to wrestle her mouth from under his hand, "MY ASS IT WAS!"

While Naruto did his best to calm his friend down, who wanted nothing more than to inflict bodily harm on the person responsible for the attack, the pair were shortly joined by the two people that had been keeping their distances from them; one of them being the would-be assailant. When the newcomers stepped into their area, the roommates were given the perfect opportunity to study up on their unintended antagonists. One was a tall boy about a year older with black, bowl cut hair, huge eyebrows, and was wearing a horrendous figure-hugging green spandex body suit with his headband wrapped around his waist. The other was a girl with brown hair tied up into buns, wearing green pants, a pink martial arts top and was holding a kunai in her right.

When both parties sized each other up, Naruto gave the pair a smile and waved pleasantly, "Hello!"

"Yosh! Nice to meet you!" the boy in green replied with equal enthusiasm. "You two are not hurt, are you?"

"Oh no. We're fine. Thanks for asking."

"Thank goodness. I'm Rock Lee by the way; Konoha's Beautiful Green Wild Beast! What's your name?"

"Naruto Uzumaki! Future Hokage!"

"Ooh! How ambitious. You wish to become the strongest shinobi in the village?"

"Damn straight!" Naruto chuckled, putting his hands behind his head before turning to the girl standing next to the friendly teen, "And who's this?"

"Oh… well this is-"

"Tenten," the girl with the bun hairstyle cut in with an apologetic bow. "Sorry for attacking you guys back there. I honestly thought it was a bear or a wild boar walking close to our training area and tried to scare it off so that it wouldn't get hurt. I didn't know there were other people in the area."

"Ahh, that's alright," Naruto waved pleasantly.

"Uhh… no it's not," Tayuya suddenly spoke before stomping up to the girl with an intense glare in play. When the red head stopped in front of the teen in pink, she raised her hand and jabbed her hard in the collar bone with her finger, "Do you know how hard you threw those fucking things?! Even when I dodged them I could feel the wind that they cut on the back of my neck! You could have taken down a horse with that power, you dumbass!"

Blinking in shock at the girl's free use of vulgarity, the kunoichi identified as Tenten looked back at her verbal attacker with a slightly offended expression and tensed, "Hey! I said I was sorry. Isn't that good enough for you?"

Gritting her teeth at her fellow kunoichi, Tayuya tentatively made a reach for her flute again but reframed from pulling it out of its holster. After a few calming breaths, the red head quickly figured a shinobi pissing contest over a near miss was probably a little much to settle an argument. Though she was eager for a fight, the musician knew better then to get into a brawl over pointless things and, concluding it to be just a waste of chakra, relaxed her hand.

Grunting, Tayuya then folded her arms and turned away, "Whatever. It was close shave. I got to call you a brain-dead twat anyway, so we're good."

Seeing the girl pout had Tenten smile. "Ah, so _you_ were the one tossing all those colorful swear words at us? I gotta say you've got quite the mouth on you."

Frowning, Tayuya turned on her again. "What? Do you _want_ a fight with me or something? Because if you do, I'd be more than happy to give you one if you-"

"Oh no, no, no, not at all," Tenten chuckled nervously while holding her hands up defensively, "I was just… just a little surprised, is all. I've never been called names like that before from another person, so it's kind of a shock to hear so many swear words coming from a girl around my age."

"Hmph," Tayuya huffed and looked away again, her finger tapping against her bicep as she let out her content little by little.

Seeing the kunoichi settle much to her relief, Tenten turned back to the blonde haired boy, who appeared to be the most okay with the whole 'attempted murder' thing, and sized him up again. Seeing him also relax when his companion did, the jinchuriki then turned to face her as their eyes met, "What were you two doing all the way out here? Does your team train in this area?"

"No. It's just the two of us," Naruto replied happily while pointing between him and the still frustrated looking Tayuya next to him. He then thumbed over his shoulder, "We train in a clearing not too far from here. It's a big area with a lot of space and it isn't out of the way from our apartment either, so it's a great place to go let off some steam. We were just heading back to the village to wash up."

"Oh I see. Morning workout?" Tenten asked, folding her own arms and smiling approvingly at the boy.

"Yeah. It's great after a cool night," Naruto chuckled while scratching his cheek.

"Yosh! Such invigorating and youthful mentality! Your commitment to physical fitness and training is just like mine and Gai-sensei's!" Lee exclaimed suddenly while thumping himself in the chest. His energetic voice was hard to ignore when both rookies turned to the boy in surprise and saw him salute with a thumbs-up and a grin that had Naruto and Tayuya reeling at its intensity, "It is an honor to meet such fine shinobi!"

Blinking, Tayuya gave the boy a weak smile, "Gee… uhh… thanks?"

Tenten grinned sheepishly at the Genin. "Don't mind Lee. He's always like this," she said while waving a hand in front of her.

The red head, though still a little ticked at the knife thrower, looked back at her nonetheless with an understanding nod. "It's okay. I'm used to it." She added to this by smiling in Naruto's direction, who stuck his tongue out shamefacedly and rubbed his cheek in embarrassment. "_He's_ exactly the same."

"I'll bet," Tenten chuckled, looking across at the blonde and nodding, "Well. I'm sorry for attacking you guys. I'm just glad that nobody got hurt." She then noticed their haggard appearances and looked them over. "Wow, but from the looks of it, you two must have been tossing shit at each other for a while now."

"Oh… yeah," Naruto tugged at his ruined clothes and looked down at the tears, "Training today was pretty hardcore. We were just getting some practice in with our new techniques."

"Really? What kind?" Tenten asked curiously. Admittedly being the nosy type, the kunoichi couldn't help but wonder what kind of jutsu would have two kids tear at each other's clothes and get grime all over them before stopping for the day. Unless it was a taijutsu technique she was sort of lost. From the other kunoichi's exhausted face and her partner's condition, their session must have been really hardcore.

"It's still a little rough around the edges. I won't be sure of the effects until I get it down completely, but my other techniques are coming along well. All I need to worry about is the timing," Naruto breathed, giving the girl an apologetic, half smile. "Sorry if I don't get bogged down in any of the details, but the jutsu the two of us are working on is…"

"Kind of secret," Tayuya finished for him. They nodded in tandem.

Looking between them, Tenten beamed, "That's cool. I understand."

It was then Naruto's turn to look curious. "So… were you the one who threw those kunai from before?" He saw the girl affirm that with a gentle nod. "Wow. That was a really good shot. You must have one hell of a throwing arm."

Tenten blushed and had the common courtesy to look bashfully at her feet, "Thanks."

Naruto then looked up at Lee. "I'm also guessing you guys train close by here. Are you two on a team together?"

"Yes! We are," Lee replied gleefully while holding a fist to his breast bone, "We are members of the noble and powerful Team Gai!"

"That's the name of our sensei by the way," Tenten spoke, glancing between the pair before stepping aside and gesturing toward the direction she and her teammate had come from. Naruto and Tayuya followed her hand into the woods, "Our training area is this way if you want to check it out. The other guy from our team is still there… so…"

Naruto appeared excited at the offer and nodded his head vigorously. "Alright! Sounds fun." It wouldn't hurt them any to take a moment to see where some of the other training fields in the area were. Apparently his and Tayuya's training clearing wasn't the only one in here. A lot of other people had the same idea of setting up group training sites in the same woodlands away from the rest of the community. It made sense that a lot of spaces closer to home would be occupied. The jinchuriki gazed towards his flat mate with a hopeful look, "Wanna check it out?"

Tayuya shrugged, "Sure. Why not?" It couldn't hurt to get a bead on the rest of the competition either. With her spirited nature brimming, the musician eagerly responded to the new side arc knocking on their front door with a radiant glow.

Appearing more excited than before Naruto turned back to their hostess and her teammate, where he saw both were looking at them kindly. "Well. You've got our attention. Lead the way!" This was honestly the first time he and Tayuya had met another Genin team from Konoha that wasn't from their graduating year, and it was great to see that they were also friendly. Lee especially.

Tenten quickly proceeded to lead the troop through the woods from where she'd thrown her kunai, cutting around the brush easily and following the many paths forged by nature. After a few minutes of walking, Naruto and Tayuya eventually arrived at the edge of a clearing under a thin canopy with a training stump positioned in the center of the grounds and various target dummies set up all around the place. It was worth noting that many of the straw dummies were already riddled with kunai and shuriken, a sight that led both rookies to the conclusion that it was the girl with buns in her hair that had been responsible for all the bulls-eyes.

When the two paused at the tree line, they immediately saw another Genin in the area training over at the stump. Assuming him to be Tenten and Lee's other teammate, the two rookies noted that he wore a baggy khaki top with buckles, dark brown shorts and a black headband under long brown hair tied back into a long ponytail. He also had glassy white colored eyes, a sight that had Naruto blink as he recognized that particular type of eye.

"_Huh… he sort of looks like Hinata,"_ Naruto thought before smiling. _"He must be related to her."_

Sensing the arrival of his teammates accompanied by others, the boy over at the stump finished his combination with a swift palm strike and looked over. Stepping out of his stance, he folded his arms and turned to face the group completely when they gathered up in front of him. "I was under the impression that today we were supposed to be training together as a group. Why are you suddenly bringing riffraff into our training area, Tenten?"

The girl smiled apologetically before gesturing to the two newcomers. "Sorry Neji. We ran into them in the woods while I was doing target practice and thought a wild animal was passing through. I just wanted to show them our team's meeting place since they also train in a field not too far from here."

Naruto waved and Tayuya nodded to the boy in greeting, now identifying him as Neji. The teen in question then proceeded to look them over, recoiling a little at their worn appearances while also taking in their expressions. After analyzing them from head to toe, he then looked back up at the pair with a disapproving scowl. "Alright. So you've shown them our team's meeting place. Can we stop wasting time now and get back to training?"

Lee jogged up to his bitter looking rival and smiled assuredly at him, "Come on Neji-kun. There's no need to be so hasty. We've got plenty of sunlight to burn." He held a determined fist up to him and flashed his trademark smile, "Why don't we use this hour to show our youthful friends from the village here how Team Gai trains in its free time?"

Frowning deeply at the prospect, Neji glared back at Tenten and her company to see them appearing a bit confused. "I don't have the energy or the patience to be dealing with such unsightly characters. Why even bother wasting your day away associating with rabble when you could be using the time available to you improving your own skills?"

Naruto and Tayuya recoiled at the boy's words and tone directed towards them before the latter frowned deeply in offense, _"What a dick…"_

"_He may look like Hinata, but he's a real jerk,"_ the jinchuriki thought with a bit of distaste in his mouth.

Tenten, feeling hostilities arise as well as a little displeasure herself from hearing Neji's condescending words, smiled weakly at her irate comrade and tried to better reason with him. "Come on Neji, lighten up a little. These two are not that bad once you get to know them. Naruto here is a really nice guy, and his friend's pretty cool too if you can look past her colorful choice of vocabulary." She saw the red head glare daggers at her but shrugged it off like it was just a casual thing. "Who knows, maybe they're pretty good for rookies. If you give them a chance I'm sure they can surprise you."

Even though it seemed impossible, the already uptight boy's gaze tightened even more so. "My eyes alone can see more about their character and abilities then what they can show me through action. They're no-namers, bottom feeders… rabble. Leave them to their own devices and let them crawl up the ladder at their own pace Tenten, otherwise they'll just drag you down with them when they inevitably fall." He ignored the surprised looks he got from his teammate and audience. "Those born a failure are destined for failure. It's an indisputable truth that defines everyone who lives under that title."

By this point, Tayuya had had just about enough of this boy's tongue. Even Tenten was showing how irate she was getting from hearing her teammate undermine two seemingly nice people without even getting a chance to speak with them directly. He was treating them like they were a part of the background. Clenching her fist angrily, the musician prepared to stomp forward to give the guy the tongue lashing he deserved until Naruto's hand shot out and stopped her.

The two kunoichi looked at the blonde, expecting to see an offended look on his own face, but instead saw that Naruto was smirking quite boldly. Upon quelling his companion's offense, the jinchuriki grinned and stepped further into the light, "You must have been training pretty hard, huh?"

Neji raised an eyebrow at the male newcomer, "Yes? Even the gifted with insurmountable talent need to work hard to keep their senses sharp."

Naruto grinned and pointed at the stump, "I can tell. The ropes look pretty worn from being hammered all day. How long have you guys been a team?" The jinchuriki looked between Neji, Lee, and Tenten eagerly, before looking back toward the former.

"We've been an active Genin squad for over a year, even though some of us have skills that far surpass that level," Neji replied while narrowing his eyes, "What's the point of all these questions? Are you going somewhere with this?"

"Ah, don't mind me. I'm just really interested in you three, is all. You seem like a really well-oiled squad from what I can see already and you all look really strong," Naruto chirped, waving a hand before springing forward suddenly. He quickly gave the serious boy an excited look and raised a fist to him, "Hey! Why don't you and I have a short spar? You look pretty tough and I could use the experience."

Tenten and Tayuya looked at the blonde in alarm, with the former stepping forward, "What? H-Hang on a sec-" She was quickly interrupted by the jinchuriki cutting her off.

"I'm still sort of new to this whole Genin thing, and I'd really like to see how I stack up compared to others who've been in the game a lot longer than I have," Naruto exclaimed brightly, stepping further forward. "My team and I have been working super hard on our skills and on all of our missions. I'm interested to see if I've gotten any better."

Sputtering, Tenten tried to find the appropriate words to respond to Naruto's absolutely direct challenge, whereas Lee was looking between both his teammate and the blonde in amazement. When a heavy silence fell over the area, everyone outside of the challenger and the one being challenged thought that the blonde was going to get turned down outright, with Tayuya hoping for the exact opposite, since her hopes were set on seeing her roommate beat the snot out of the guy who had been undermining them since laying eyes on him. After a few minutes of nothing but birds chirping and breathing, much to Tenten and Lee's shock, a smirk crossed Neji's face.

The Hyuuga unfolded his arms, "Very well. I accept your challenge." He pushed past Lee and stepped out further onto the field, taking his spot in the open space. "You seem to be the type who needs to have a point beaten into their skull in order for the truth to finally sink in. I'll happily provide you with that service if it means putting you in your place."

Naruto gleefully leapt into the clearing as well and took up a spot directly across from his willing opponent. Tenten and Tayuya quickly moved forward to stand beside Lee, who had also pulled back in astonishment as his stoic teammate adhered to the spry Naruto's request. "No need to be so mean. I just want to see what level I'm at. That's all."

"Fair enough," Neji replied before glaring across at the rest of the group, "Lee; will you please referee this match?"

Blinking in surprise, the boy in green nodded affirmatively and stepped forward, "Yes. Of course." Clearing his throat, he then straightened up and lifted his head to meet the gazes of both fighters, "A one-on-one friendly spar! The winner will be decided if their opponent is unable to continue or concedes defeat!"

Tenten, looking worried, turned towards Tayuya to address her concern, "Why don't you say something? We should stop this."

The red head smirked with her arms folded, "Why? Are you afraid that your teammate is going to get his ass kicked?"

"No! That's not it at all!" Tenten replied frantically before leaning in to whisper to the girl, "It's Naruto I'm worried about. Neji has been a Genin for over a year and you guys are still rookies, right?"

"Yeah. So?"

"Then that's _really_ bad. Neji was the top rookie of our year and possesses the strongest form of taijutsu in the village. After all our time spent training together, neither Lee nor I have beaten him _once_ in a spar. He can take on both of us and win, so unless your friend is Jonin level or has some impossible trick up his sleeve, he doesn't stand a chance," Tenten hissed. This was a really serious case; absolutely within reason to sweat over.

Regardless of her explanations however, the red head beside her didn't appear concerned at all. In fact, she was still smiling. "Shithead may not be a Jonin, but he's a really hardnosed bastard and a really clever fighter. Don't think it's all over just because you guys weren't able to beat your own teammate. If it's a taijutsu match, then Naruto's got this one in the bag."

"Yeah, but-" Tenten stammered.

"Relax Bun-girl. Just stand back and watch. No need to flip out."

Yeah, she was one to talk.

Though hesitant and still fearing the safety of the newcomer, who didn't seem like much on first glance, Tenten felt that perhaps seeing what the boy was capable of first would be the better path to take than calling out on concern. Not wanting to judge a book by its cover like Neji openly did on a daily basis, the kunoichi then turned her gaze back to the pair and watched as Lee organized the entire procession while preparing to blow the whistle.

Neji settled into his clan's usual stance, palms up and legs spread into a wide and even position. He smirked across at the boy who continued stretching with his arms behind his head. _"What an arbitrary and odd looking fellow. He may seem like he's got pluck and a lot of confidence, but strip all of that away and all you have are underdeveloped skills and no bite to match his bark."_ Hell, he wouldn't even need to use his Byakugan for this one.

He aimed to end this quickly.

It was then after seeing the jinchuriki finish stretching that Neji and Lee looked at him in surprise when Naruto did something completely unexpected and suddenly settled into a wide stance with his arms dropped in front of him. They began swaying from side to side like they were caught on a breeze, like boneless fillets hanging from a rack. With the smile he was also wearing to match his actions, it almost seemed like he was provoking his opponent, when in actuality it was his fighting stance. Even so, Neji and the others didn't know that, and all Tenten and Lee could do was gawk from their stations.

"N-Naruto-kun," Lee raised a hand worryingly, "A-Are you good to fight? Take your stance."

"This _is_ my stance," Naruto replied with a bright grin, not taking his eyes off of his confused opponent for even a second. "I'm ready."

Appearing both perplexed and hesitant, Lee gulped before nodding in understanding, "Very well." Looking back to center, he raised his hand and dropped it, "Begin!"

Naruto held his ground, continuing to sway slightly while his opponent watched him intently. When silence fell, it became even easier for both sides to think clearly, with the Hyuuga taking the lead as he analyzed his opponent's stance. _"He doesn't appear to use any known fighting style from this village… however…"_ He brought his hand forward a little further and placed his weight on his back foot. _"That stance will allow him to get within range of his prey a lot easier when on the approach, yet leaves his body completely open to attack. Interesting."_ It was almost animalistic in appearance.

Despite how unorthodox it looked, Neji wasn't going to let oddity of style get to him. He still intended to finish this fight at his own pace.

Lee and Tenten stood back with tense expressions on their faces. They had no idea how the fight was going to start, how long it was going to last or what was going to happen. All they knew was that Naruto was stepping into some really hot water. Neji wasn't one to take fights lightly, even if you knew he was going to win. Before it was over they were sure the Hyuuga was going to cause his opponent some serious damage, even if it was just a spar.

Nevertheless, even with all this weight and anxiety hanging in the air, Tayuya didn't appear worried in the slightest. In fact, as she watched Naruto sway from side to side with his arms hanging in front and Neji edge forward in his stance, her smirk widened and gaze narrowed.

"_Show me how much stronger you've gotten, shithead,"_ Tayuya thought.

As if her thought were the starting gun, Naruto flashed his opponent a wider grin before raising his left foot like he was preparing to stomp it into the ground. Neji blinked when he saw this, his expression unchanging as he observed the blonde's actions carefully.

"Hey, hey," the jinchuriki chirped, before suddenly dropping his foot to the grass.

Neji's eyes widened the instant he heard the thump, because the exact moment the blonde set his foot onto the ground he just vanished from sight with only a small trail of dust standing in his place. Alarmed, the Hyuuga looked straight down to his right, where he saw the blurred form of his opponent reappear directly in his shadow.

"Watch yourself!"

"_Whoa!"_ Neji thought in alarm before bringing his arms up, blocking what could only be described as a jack hammer slamming into him from the side. His body blown back from the force with a cloud of perspiration blasting into the air, the Hyuuga glared over his shoulder as he saw Naruto reappear in the area behind him, following an invisible circle encompassing the area. Blinking in awe at the speed the boy showed, Neji frowned deeply, _"So you've got some speed hidden in those legs of yours. I'll admit… that's a surprise."_

Tenten blinked and shook her head in astonishment.

What the hell just happened? She thought Naruto was standing in front of his opponent about ten meters away and the next thing she knew, she was seeing the same boy five meters behind her teammate and circling after a dash she completely lost track of. "Hang on. What the heck was that?"

"That would be shithead revving his engine," Tayuya exclaimed simply, her smirk twitching. She didn't want to use the word 'gunning' because she wasn't completely sure whether her roommate had actually gone at full speed. Nevertheless, that was a fantastically good dash. Since neither of the members of Team Gai were focused it wasn't surprising that they lost track of him.

"_Damn,"_ Tenten thought, shaking her head. _"That speed is exactly the same as Lee's."_ She'd never seen another Genin their age move that fast except for her teammates. This Naruto boy was just a rookie and he had the speed of one with two years of experience. Where the heck had he been hiding all this time?

Not only that, the most shocking thing about his maneuver was that he didn't just go straight at his opponent. When he disappeared, he managed to run a full lap around Neji and come up from behind him.

As Naruto hopped around the grassy area in front of his opponent, Neji, still recovering from the shock of his agility, was now reevaluating his current predicament. A bead of sweat appeared on his face as he watched his opponent pace about on the spot, doing some weird and awkward footwork with a completely relaxed visage, _"This truly was the first time an opponent completely disappeared when he was standing right in front of me. I suppose I will have to change the way I approach this."_ Expression becoming serious, Neji retook his stance as his eyes literally sharpened. On cue, veins appeared on either side of his face as he activated his signature doejutsu, giving him a complete 360 degree field of vision. _"__**Byakugan!**__ This rookie is something else."_

Tenten blinked when she saw her teammate's eyes change, "Whoa. This is new."

Tayuya looked at the older teen seriously, "What's wrong?"

The kunoichi next to her frowned, "Neji never uses his _Byakugan_ unless his opponent is giving him a hard time. The only people I know he uses it against are Lee and Gai-sensei, but… to activate his doejutsu now?" Tenten began to sweat nervously as she looked across at Naruto, who was still hopping from foot to foot. "He first assumed his opponent was young and inexperienced, and planned to intimidate him with his base style to end the match quickly. But it looks as though that plan didn't work out."

Chuckling, Tayuya looked back, "No kidding."

Lee, who had also seen the dash, looked on in amazement, "Whoa! What an impressive right overhand! Your speed is truly incredible, Naruto-kun!"

Neji frowned at the comment, "Lee!"

"Oh! Right! I'm supposed to be refereeing," the boy mumbled the last part embarrassingly before clearing his throat. "First move goes to Naruto-kun!"

Relaxed and ready to move again, Neji braced himself. _"I'll be sure to take him down before he has a chance to counter. His speed isn't that difficult to deal with, but his power is something else entirely. I'll cut him off so he can't escape and disable his legs!"_ His feet digging, the Hyuuga then dashed forward with almost comparable swiftness, a cloud of dust kicking into the air. Lee, Tenten and Tayuya watched him gun straight for Naruto, who in turn watched in surprise until the genius was soon upon him with his fangs drawn.

The Hyuuga ducked in, swinging with an opening left palm strike. When it appeared to be a sure hit, Naruto frowned when he followed the motion of the attack and dodged, beginning to swing his body left and right quickly as his opponent pressured him with lightning fast combinations of palm strikes. Each strike unleashed a visible blue burst of chakra, a sight that surprised the jinchuriki and immediately told him to stay well away from them. Upon ducking and swinging around the first combination, Naruto quickly began hopping backwards at a rhythmic yet collected pace. Neji pursued.

Palm strikes cutting through the air, Naruto dodged using small left, right and backward sways, his body remaining upright with his arms at his sides as he timely avoided every attack. Neji advanced hurriedly, unleashing random combinations of palm attacks all aimed for his opponent's upper body. But with every pinpoint strike he fired off Naruto managed to sway away from it, keeping his torso, chest and head out of reach of the sharp blows.

The onslaught of attacks was so quick that it seemed almost impossible to counter, and those blue bursts of chakra made guarding against them a huge risk on the jinchuriki's part.

Tenten noticed the linear retreat that Naruto was making as Neji chased him down with unrelenting Juken attacks, which she quickly responded to in panic. "Don't step back! Neji is a straight hitter! He'll corner you with those!"

It was exactly as she said. Naruto was unknowingly or knowingly retreating in the direction of the tree line, where an oak stood clearly in his path. The serious look he wore told everyone that he was focused on every individual hit that Neji was throwing at him, meaning that he probably had no idea he was being forced into a narrow corridor.

After seeing him avoid a one-two palm strike to his chest, Neji upped his speed with a smirk and began striking at him more aggressively, with Naruto swaying at even more strange angles while continuing to shuffle back with graceful yet shift-by-shift footwork.

Tayuya furrowed her brow as she watched Neji attack. _"If I remember correctly, Anko-sensei said the Hyuuga specialize in the Gentle Fist style. Using precise and accurate hits in conjunction with their chakra, Hyuuga shinobi are able to seal their opponent's chakra points as well as cause serious internal damage to their targets."_ She lowered her head as she considered the opponent Naruto was up against. _"They have superb chakra control and accuracy as well; able to defend with the same bursts they use to attack the circulatory system. I can see why Naruto is avoiding conventional guarding against this guy. He's dangerous."_

Naruto's back eventually slammed into the tree. Sparing it a glance at the sudden stop of his momentum, he then glared ahead of him again to see Neji advance the last few feet of distance between them and swing in with a left palm strike. Telegraphing its motion, Naruto watched it intently as the world slowed down around him, a time frame which was shared by his opponent who smirked as he uncorked his final attack on his now cornered foe.

The Hyuuga aimed for the neck, capitalizing on the opening presented to him._ "Got you!"_ The flow in his motion was superb. There was no disjointed movement or blunt stagger, his attack was fast and perfect, as expected of a genius. _"You thought you could dodge me forever? That was your mistake. Even though you were the one who asked for this, from the very beginning of this fight you were fated to be beaten by me. That's just the way it is."_ His palm cut through the air, intent on taking his now stationary opponent down in one hit. The boy was in line and right on the mark. _"You can't change your destiny."_

Lee gritted his teeth as he saw Neji's palm strike bear down upon his target, watching the whole thing in the same slow motion time frame as they were. _"Naruto-kun isn't in a position that will allow him to retaliate. Neji-kun knows this. He'll target a vital point for sure!"_

Just when it seemed like the whole thing was over, something astonishing happened.

At first appearing surprised at the sight of the incoming finishing blow, Naruto suddenly smirked at his opponent and, without hesitation, started moving from side to side at high speed. From Neji's point of view the boy's form seemed to blur out when he began to sway, yet still remained in his line of sight throughout the entire motion of his palm strike, so he initially had no cause for concern. However, just as his hand closed the final distance between them, the jinchuriki's body started to fade, becoming transparent before vanishing completely like a ghost dissipating on the wind.

In the end Neji's palm strike ended up slamming into the trunk of the tree his opponent was pinned against, splintering the wood and plowing a decent dent into it. The force of the blow reverberated throughout the entire area.

While the power behind the attack was impressive, what shocked everyone and Neji the most was that his final attack didn't hit its intended target. Instead, the Hyuuga's eyes widened in shock when he realized he missed his opponent completely, who just up and vanished from right out under him.

"_What?! It can't be! I thought I had him trapped! Where is he?"_ Even with his Byakugan blazing, Neji had completely lost sight of the blonde. His hand quickly withdrawing from its strike, Neji scanned the entire area quickly for any sign of his target before spotting a yellow blur darting out from his doejutsu's only blind spot. The sight alarmed him greatly, prompting him to react instantly._ "Where did he go?"_ He spun around, stunned gaze showing his disbelief when they finally landed back on his opponent materializing out of the air directly over his shoulder. _"What did he do?!"_

He turned around just in time to see a fist flying straight at him… and reacted instinctively.

The sound of a gunshot rang out as both Naruto and Neji's heads were blasted back from two hits striking them in the face simultaneously. While the jinchuriki was hit in the cheek by a palm strike that came from below, his fist managed to slam clean across Neji's face over the Hyuuga's shoulder at the exact same time. Apparently the Hyuuga was able to react fast enough to chuck a counter to _his_ counter, and even though the blonde's attack landed first by a fraction of a second, the damage was even. Blood flew from both their mouths when the attacks crashed across their expressions and sent both opponents staggering backwards.

Both Tenten and Lee looked on in shock when they saw the two fighters stumble away from each other, with Tayuya also showing surprise at the unexpected turn with her eyes widening and hair rising ever so slightly. The sound of the simultaneous hits ringing out sent chills down their spines.

"Whoa! A dual exchange?" Lee exclaimed.

"But who got hit worse?" Tenten asked, gritting her teeth when she watched them come to a stop.

Looking at each other in astonishment for a moment, Naruto smiled brightly and stepped out of his fighting stance, wiping the blood from his mouth. "Good fight. You had me on the ropes there for a second."

Neji frowned when he saw his opponent disengage and deactivated his Byakugan. He shut his right eye tightly from the damage he'd caught and heaved a sign, after which he then folded his arms. He faced the blonde with a serious expression, who returned it with a beaming look and a twinkle in his iris.

"Man, you're way stronger than Sasuke and Kiba. I didn't think there was a person in this village who could keep up with me, but then you jumped in," Naruto chirped.

Realizing the fight was over, Lee and Tenten quickly trotted over along with Tayuya, all of them coming to stand beside the pair as Neji stared back at his cheerful opponent.

The Hyuuga furrowed his brow. "What kind of fighting style do you use? I've never encountered anyone who used a martial arts form quite like yours before and I've fought many. It was completely unorthodox." Unreadable too. Neji realized part way through their duel that he was unable to gauge the distance between himself and his opponent properly, or time any of his attacks effectively because of his foe's strange dodging techniques. Was this due to the boy continuously shifting from orthodox to southpaw, or was it his swaying?

Either way, Neji was unable to land any of his blows until the very end and he only managed that because he threw that last palm strike out of pure reflex.

Naruto grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "It's my own fighting style." He saw Neji's eyes widen. "I made it myself from watching others practice and getting into a lot of fights on the streets when I was younger. I was always causing problems for others and attracting a lot of unwanted attention from unsavory characters, so most of the time I couldn't help it. It just sort of happened."

"I see," Neji nodded in understanding before putting on somewhat of a smile despite the pain on the right side of his face. "You have quite a bit of talent in you. I never would have guessed…"

"I wouldn't really call it talent," Naruto chuckled nervously, "It's more like wild instinct honed from years of practice. Back in the academy I was always called a delinquent and a dead last because I failed almost every test that was given to me and kept screwing up the _Bunshin no Jutsu_. Everyone kept away from me too because they thought I was a bad influence, so… I decided to change all that." He looked up at the curious expression of Neji, who was listening to him intently just like Tenten and Lee. "I worked hard to get where I am and changed my approach. I didn't want to get left behind or be treated like I didn't matter, so I got better at what I did and passed with a smile. I nearly killed myself getting as good as I am today."

Surprised at hearing the back-story from the boy in front of him and upon processing all of the information shared, Neji then glanced over at Lee and Tenten. When he saw their bewildered eyes meet his, he looked away shamefacedly. It became glaringly obvious to him that he had misjudged his opponent earlier, called him and his friend commoners and people not worthy of his time, and looked down on them as lesser beings.

He also called Naruto a failure and openly decreed that he would lose to him no matter what.

But this boy, having admitted to being a failure in the academy, a dead last and a slacker, managed to trade blows evenly with him, a genius and possibly the strongest Genin in the village. The fight Neji had just had and in light of this new information took all of the beliefs he held beforehand and shoved them right back into his face, like a second, metaphorical punch. It was almost like the blow he received from his opponent woke him up, showing him something beyond the philosophy he had previously grilled himself into believing whole-heartedly and, ultimately, blinded him.

Seeing Neji have circles ran around him and take a hit was an entirely new thing for Lee and Tenten, the former especially who looked his friend over before turning to look back at Naruto with a fond and appraising gaze. Upon hearing his story of how he'd been the academy's loser and dead last had the fuzzy browed boy suck in air and straighten up. He then bowed deeply to the jinchuriki, an action that got Naruto to jump in surprise.

"You were splendid, Naruto-kun!" Lee exclaimed, a huge grin framing his face when he looked up. He then had the right sense of mind to appear surprised when he remembered his job from before. "Oh wait… I was supposed to be refereeing this battle, but I was so shocked by its outcome that I was unable to comment on it at all!" Blinking, he then looked back at the jinchuriki with a determined glare, "IT IS A DRAW!"

"A draw?" Tenten scoffed, looking at her shining teammate in amusement. _"That clearly wasn't a draw, Lee. For the first time ever I was able to watch Neji get his arrogant face smashed in by someone who was younger than him and wasn't our teacher."_ Even though it was technically a dual exchange, in reality it was a big win for Naruto.

In a single moment Naruto was able to show Neji that he shouldn't look down on others on first glance and label them as people beneath him. He viewed Naruto as a failure; someone who would lose against him in an instant. But instead, the boy was able to out run, out maneuver and probably win even in a simultaneous exchange. The way Neji was cringing under a bruised face and how his opponent was grinning brightly like he didn't get hit proved that.

Hopefully this outcome wouldn't screw up their team dynamics, but looking at the Hyuuga's face and how he was keeping his attention elsewhere didn't fill Tenten with much confidence.

Naruto grinned nervously at the beaming Lee and nodded to him, "I-I'm glad you liked the fight, Bushy Brows."

"I most certainly did! It was so passionate and awe inspiring, the thought of it makes me want to work even harder to become even stronger!" Lee shouted, holding his fists up excitedly. "You gave my rival such a hard time and fought him squarely on his own turf! You truly are a strong person, Naruto-kun! Please… allow me to make you my rival too!"

Appearing bewildered at first, after managing to process the boy's exuberant exclamations, Naruto then grinned back at the boisterous individual and nodded firmly. "Sure thing Lee. I'm always looking for new challenges to test my skills against. If your teammate is this good, then I really want to see what you can do too." The excited expression worn by said energetic individual grew in intensity as both parties exchanged smiles. However, before they could take their stand-off any further Naruto suddenly looked over his shoulder and into the trees. It was only for a moment, so nobody noticed his averted gaze when he turned back to face the boy in green with a slightly smaller smile, "But I've got to get going now. We can have a spar some other time, okay?"

"Yosh! Then I will be looking forward to it with great anticipation, Naruto-kun!" Lee stated with his trademark salute.

Giving the boy a thumbs-up and a courteous nod of thanks to Neji who returned it in kind, Naruto then turned to Tenten to see the girl recoil a little when his intense gaze fell upon her. The jinchuriki beamed and nodded politely in her direction, "Thanks for showing me your training spot. I really enjoyed meeting you guys."

Gulping, Tenten gave him back a weak smile of her own, "You're welcome, Naruto."

With a final nod and a wave, Naruto then turned back to Tayuya who was waiting patiently with her arms folded. When he set his attention onto her, the girl smirked at him before leading the two out of the area. They both waved back at Team Gai, all of whom saw them off with varying smiles and interest.

"Hard fight?" the red head asked upon looking the boy over and getting far enough away from the older team.

"More like a scary one," Naruto exclaimed, directing the girl wordlessly along the quickest path out of there. "Seriously, that Neji had a really dangerous style and was strong to boot. I could actually feel the chakra he was shooting off with every strike he made. He wasn't going for my head or anything like that; the guy was literally aiming for my organs. There was no way I was going to let any of those attacks land on my body, even if I was to guard." He then winced a little._ "That last hit to the face really stung. I think he cut through some of the muscle fibers with that blow."_

"Smart. But that's how you usually fight isn't it? You either keep your distance through excessive dodging and counters or you get in close and slug it out with them," Tayuya pointed while glancing back at the training field they were parting from and seeing the entirety of Team Gai formed up in the center. "That jerk was a sharp one. Normally you would have had him in the first few hits, but he was keeping you on your toes."

"Yeah. I needed to get a feel for his speed and rhythm first before trying anything," Naruto said while rubbing his knuckles. "His type are usually the most difficult to deal with. He's got a strong body from training, good instincts, a keen eye, a powerful kekkei genkai and great control. I've never fought anyone like him before; it was great."

"I'll bet he's never fought anyone like you before either," Tayuya replied with a smirk, wrapping an arm around his and pulling him to her roughly. "That was your advantage. The guy must have been so used to fighting opponents with more direct and textbook fighting styles that he wasn't prepared to face your whacked up taijutsu style. That and he underestimated you all the way through to the end. You must have caught him completely by surprise."

"True. But I don't intend to stop where I am with it. Oh no," Naruto said with a shake of his head. "I want to become stronger… _much_ stronger than that. I'll keep working hard and become the strongest shinobi in this village, with the best fighting style and the best ninjutsu combinations." He slammed his fist into his open palm. "Believe it."

Gazing at him fondly, Tayuya then grinned and jabbed him in the side. This definitely got the boy's attention and he glanced at the girl curiously. "Hey, back there when you stopped me, it was because you wanted to teach the guy a lesson yourself, right?"

Giving the girl a thoughtful look, Naruto then looked back up, feigning ignorance. "Whatever do you mean, Tayuya-chan?"

"Other people may think they know you well enough to read your responses, but I know when you want to get a point across through action rather than through words," the red head said, leaning over and kissing him on the cheek. "You sly fox you; always pulling impossible wins out of your ass. I would have beaten the snot out of that guy myself, if I didn't realize he would have pummeled me into submission in the first few seconds."

Naruto's grin widened as the two hit the trail, quickly finding their way back onto the main highway on route to the village. After the whole ordeal they'd just been through, he desperately wanted a nice hot bath. Finding the closest sign, the pair turned all eyes toward the path ahead and made for the hot springs.

Back at Team Gai's training area, the entire squad waited until Naruto and Tayuya were well out of ear shot and sight before turning to each other. While Neji kept uncomfortably quiet with his eyes averted, Tenten and Lee managed to recover enough to speak level with one another.

"That was some show," the kunoichi breathed, looking over at the Hyuuga, "You okay?"

"I'm fine, Tenten," Neji replied, closing his eyes. Even though his head was still throbbing and his bruise had started to swell, he still managed to hold it together. "I just… need some time to think."

"S-Sure," the girl smiled, giving him a considerate gaze. "Take all the time you need."

"Yosh! But what a thrilling bout that was!" Lee cheered, slamming his fists together excitedly. "Naruto-kun was really strong! It was like he was youth and strength personified! If he was the dead last in his class and was able to match a genius blow for blow through hard work and training alone, then I must work even harder to become as strong as him!"

Without a doubt it had been a pretty intense battle. With Lee cheering all sorts of nonsense over it and Neji allowing himself some time to his own thoughts in regards to his outlook on life, Tenten soon found herself staring intently in the direction the pair had gone off in with a raised eyebrow.

"_Naruto, huh?"_ the kunoichi thought before giving a smile and subtly clenching her fists. _"Man… I hate to admit it, but even __**he**__ had me fired up back there. Wow."_ A light coloring of red appeared on her cheeks when she thought back to the boy's wicked smirk and dashing grin when he faced her, her mind occupying itself with images of the interesting youngster and his magnetic personality.

After which Tenten quickly shook her head and dismissed her train of thought when her memories unexpectedly led in to some strange after images.

Unknown to most of the team save Neji, high up in the canopy where Naruto had momentarily turned his gaze toward while speaking with Lee, Gai stood close at hand leaning against the trunk with his arms folded. Having been there since the beginning of Neji's match, the man wisely chose to hold his ground and watch from afar to see how the fight would turn out. While initially expecting an overwhelming victory in his team's resident genius, he was later incredibly shocked when he saw the tides shift against the Hyuuga, who took a big hit from a boy a year younger than him.

The skill the newcomer displayed and instincts, it was almost unfathomable, almost unnatural in comparison. It was also the first time Gai had ever seen his student take a hit in close-combat; his specialty no less.

After watching the blonde leave with his companion beside him, the Jonin then brought his hand up to his chin and rubbed it thoughtfully. Upon seeing the mood improve down below with Lee celebrating at the conclusion of the fight, Neji left to his quiet soul searching and Tenten also expressing her own enthusiasm in her own way, a smile came to the man's face as he looked in the direction the rookies had gone.

"_Naruto. If I'm not mistaken he's one of Kakashi's boys. Though he may not look the part, it seems that my own eternal rival has found himself a really interesting apprentice."_ A very Gai-like smile appeared on his face as he contemplated the matter._ "Fascinating."_

XXX

**Two weeks later…**

"You guys have grown a lot since I first met you, and each of you has shown me how hard you're willing to work to complete an assignment," Kakashi spoke, addressing each and all three of his students who were lined up in front of him on the edge of the same clearing they did the bell test. Seeing their expectant faces fixed squarely on him, the silver haired Jonin nodded. "Now is the time that I help speed up your growth and give you something even more challenging to work on, which is why I called all three of you here today."

A smile came to Sasuke's expression while eager grins spread across Sakura and Naruto's faces, both of whom leaned forward in anticipation.

"S-So… what's this training you have planned for us, Kakashi-sensei?" the kunoichi asked.

"Yeah! Yeah! Tell us! Tell us!" Naruto encouraged while jumping on the spot.

Hearing their collective enthusiasm had Kakashi beaming, "We, by which I mean the three of you… are going to climb a tree."

Initially expecting something a lot more exciting to roll out of the man's mouth, the three teens deadpanned at his lack of suspense before looking up at the trees standing behind the Jonin. After staring at the unmoving towers for a solid minute, they then looked back at the Cyclops to see he was still staring back at them warmly. Frowns then came upon all three of their faces when they finally processed the words Kakashi had spoken to them, and they each responded in their own respective manners.

"That's very funny, Kakashi-sensei. I almost forgot to laugh," Naruto exclaimed sarcastically, a dark chuckle ending his sentence.

"We already know how to climb trees," Sakura stated a-matter-of-factly.

"Seriously?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

It was the name of the exercise that got to them. Sure it was judging the book by its cover, but how else could they have reacted? The task their instructor had planned for them didn't sound like anything special. In fact, it sounded like their teacher was taking them back to the basics that they learned way earlier in the academy.

However, they were soon to find out that this was not to be.

"Oh, this isn't anything like all those tests you performed back in grade school. Your next task is a little more complicated than that," Kakashi replied brightly. Forming a contemporary hand seal, the man stood in place for a few seconds before starting towards the tree at a casual walking pace. He was watched closely by his still silent group of students as he approached the trunk and placed his foot firmly against it.

That's where all the normal stuff of the day ended and extraordinary started to take place when the Jonin began marching up the side of the tree like he was walking on solid ground. Continuing to give the middle finger to gravity, he reached the first branch up and walked out to its center on its underside, where he then hung like a bat with his hands in his pockets

How this was actually possible the kids had no idea, but after seeing it the three youngsters were immediately in awe. If they could see it, then there was no way they couldn't believe it.

"And you guys had your doubts about me," Kakashi chirped with an eye smile, watching as their expressions switched from astonished to bashful, with the trio quickly looking away scratching their cheeks or kicking at the ground. Satisfied that he had managed to get through to them, the Jonin then pulled out three kunai and tossed them at the ground to land at their feet. "The point of this exercise is simple. The main purpose of this training is to accumulate the right amount of molded chakra to the right location of the body. This is difficult even for well-trained ninja. Since the amount of chakra used for tree climbing is quite subtle and the most difficult place to accumulate chakra is said to be behind the feet, getting this exercise right is going to take a lot of work. In other words, if you are able to master this, you will be able to learn any kind of technique. In theory, anyway."

Sakura's expression blinked into realization and she dropped her fist into her open palm, "Oh, I get it!" She then bent over and picked up one of the kunai, just as Naruto and Sasuke did. "The second purpose of this exercise is maintaining the correct amount of molded chakra so that we can stick to the surface of the tree, right sensei?"

The Jonin nodded, "Took the words right out of my mouth, Sakura-kun." He then pointed at the branch he was hanging from for emphasis. "I'm holding the chakra I have molded at my feet as we speak. Most of the time shinobi mold their chakra during battle and when in that situation, it is even more difficult to maintain the consistency. It may sound easy on paper, but it is best that you learn this exercise with your bodies. It won't only strengthen your understanding of chakra control but it will also strengthen your control and your chakra levels as well."

"So… what do we do with these, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, holding up the knife in his hand while Sasuke twirled his on his finger absently.

Their teacher directed their attention to the trees in front of them, "Use it to mark where you are able to climb with your current ability. With every attempt you make try to create a new mark above the old one. It will help you keep track of your progress." He then raised a finger, "Oh, and since you haven't done this before you may want a running start. Remember to concentrate your chakra at your feet and to hold it."

Without needing to be told twice, the three of them did as they were instructed, molded their chakra at their feet, and took off at their respective trees. Naruto made it to his and started to climb with Sasuke following afterwards a close second. The latter made it quite a ways before the bark exploded underneath his feet, forcing him to back flip off and land before he fell. The Uchiha glared up at the trunk in frustration.

"_Shit. I didn't know maintaining a constant amount of chakra was this difficult. If the chakra is too strong I get repelled."_

**CRACK! **"GAAAAHHH!"

Hearing a scream, Sasuke panned over in surprise. When he glanced toward his rival's tree he saw that Naruto had made it a few meters further, but instead of getting blasted back or slipping off the tree from lack of control, his leg had actually gone straight through and into the tree. Now he was stuck there waving his hands about frantically while trying to pull himself out.

"Help! I'm stuck!" Naruto shouted, grabbing his leg, "Damn it! That wasn't supposed to happen!"

Sasuke sweat dropped as he watched the blonde try to yank his foot out. _"If you use WAY too much __**that**__ happens. The attraction becomes so great you create a vacuum effect and you get sucked straight into the surface."_ Guess it was only possible if you were a chakra monster like Naruto. He hypothesized that if you maintained a lesser amount then you wouldn't be able to stick to the tree and you would simply slip and fall.

A grim prospect, but the prodigy got the gist of it.

Kakashi chuckled a little after watching Naruto finally pull himself out of the trunk and grab onto the tree in the conventional manner, panting slightly before marking his place… though in light of the recent event it didn't seem necessary. _"Well, there's the difference between Sasuke and Naruto."_

"Hey, this is easy!" Sakura's voice came from above, drawing the boys' attention to her to see she had made it all the way to the topmost visible branch of her tree. That was a full two stories above the ground. She stuck her tongue out cutely when their eyes fell on her.

Naruto blinked before grinning, "Wow! Nice going, Sakura-chan!"

"Hmm, it seems that my team's kunoichi is the best at controlling her chakra," Kakashi exclaimed before glancing towards the boy still hanging off of his tree and towards the one crouching down below staring up enviously. "Perhaps Sakura-chan is closer to becoming Hokage then a certain ambitious _someone_ on my team… and to think that I also had such high hopes for the 'powerful' Uchiha Clan as well." He saw the jinchuriki hop down from his trunk and Sasuke glare back at his before starting to run up it again, choosing to ignore Sakura's progress in favor of his exercise.

Sakura gave her teacher a look conveying complete and utter dismay. _"What? Why'd you say that? Now he's going to hate me!"_ Her shoulders quickly hunched in a clear sign of displeasure as her cheeks puffed out indignantly. The inner personality inside her head nodded in agreement. "Sometimes you say too much, Kakashi-sensei."

Naruto grinned and twirled the kunai he had on his finger before locking it in a tight grip, "Yosh! I'm going to get this exercise down before the sun sets! Believe it!" And with that, he along with Sasuke took off towards their trees while Sakura hopped down from hers to practice it some more. This time however, after getting up to the point where he got stuck, Naruto's grip suddenly vanished and he dropped like a dead-weight, hitting the ground with a dull and very hilarious thud.

Sprawled out on the grass with a bruise forming on his cranium, the boy suddenly heard a familiar animal chirping incessantly from the branches above and looked up to see Swift, his longtime training companion, visibly laughing her ass off. The way she was chirping as if struggling for air was a clear indication of what a bird genuinely looked like cackling, the sight of which got Naruto to shake his fist up at her. "Damn it! You were watching me, Swift-chan?!"

A much deeper snickering could be heard somewhere in the back of his mind; Naruto developing a tick mark when he realized that the Kyuubi was also laughing at him. _**"That was priceless brat. Did you hear the sound you made when you hit the ground? It was like a bag of flower being dropped."**_

Naruto lifted his jacket and glared at his stomach, "Don't _you_ start, you big ball of fluff!"

As odd as it was to see their teammate cursing at both a bird and his own stomach, his teammates let his occasional weirdness slide and continued on with their exercises.

And from there the long battle began. Returning to earth shortly afterwards to observe from a more comfortable vantage point, Kakashi watched carefully as each of his students proceeded to push themselves to their limits.

OOO

**Meanwhile…**

In another country, deep within the catacombs of a large underground complex beneath a heavy forest of evergreens, a sinister figure sat looking over the magnificence of his latest research. Inside a dark room sitting in a large chair with no outstanding features on it whatsoever, a man with long black hair, pale skin and wearing beige battle robes and a thick purple rope wrapped firmly around his waist, smirked widely as he watched one of his many yet scarcely seen workmen scurry around collecting data from the surrounding tanks.

The individual moving about was a masked man wearing a headband with a musical note on it, aligning him with the _Village Hidden in the Sound_. Also dressed in a white uniform sort of resembling a hazmat suit, he was currently moving across from spot to spot looking into a series of green tubes lined up inside the room. Each glass case was filled with an animal of some kind, one per enclosure, with each creature bearing the markings of some kind of infection.

But what kind of infection left a freaky, black tattoo pattern over their bodies resembling either crosshatching, flames, spirals, lines, or other patterns like it was taken off of Halloween wrapping paper?

The only people aware of the true purpose of this room and its contents were of course the man in the seat, and the few people closest to him.

Speaking of which, one of those abovementioned closest people was just entering the room in the background right now.

Glancing over his shoulder, the pale-skinned man smiled, "Kimimaro-kun."

"You called for me, Orochimaru-sama?" the boy with white hair, ivory skin, red markings on his face, and wearing a white robe and dark pants asked as he stepped into his master's presence.

"Yes. I did," the Sannin replied, gesturing for the young adult to stand to the side where he could see him. "How are you feeling? Have you fully recovered from your unfortunate illness yet?"

The stoic shinobi looked down at his hand and flexed his fingers in a testing manner. His expression did not waver nor did his eyes give any tells, not until his face turned back toward the still seated individual and he nodded. "My muscles and reflexes are responding well. The medicine Kabuto was able to acquire from his source and gave to me forced most of the virus out of my system. However, it will take a few more days till I am back up to full strength." A small smile came to his face. "I am excited. Soon I will be of use to you once again, Orochimaru-sama."

The Sannin smiled gleefully. "That's so wonderful to hear. I look forward to seeing you in action again." He then lowered his head and cast an eerie shadow across his eyes, "However, I'm afraid that a certain matter has arisen that I've been forced to cut your recovery period short."

At first confused by the man's sudden statement, Kimimaro quickly dispersed with any and all bewilderment and placed his hand over his chest, "I will do everything that I can for you with whatever strength that I can muster. No task is too great for me, even in sickness."

Orochimaru acknowledged the boy's eagerness proudly, "I need for you to run a small errand for me to the _Land of Waves_. One of the laboratories I had moved there a few years ago has gone silent and I'm growing a little bit concerned for all my little experiments I left in the hands of the facility's caretaker. I would like for you to check up on Amachi to see if he's doing alright and to have him send over the rest of the research he promised me for this year."

Hearing this, Kimimaro bowed low to the pale shinobi with his gaze averted. "I shall leave at once, Orochimaru-sama." He remained in that position for the next minute awaiting the man's go sign, only to feel the man's hand rest upon his head. The feeling of contact had the white haired boy open his eyes in surprise.

As if feeling his aura, Orochimaru beamed down at his subordinate as he slowly straightened up to face him once more. "You are such a good and strong child, Kimimaro-kun. I look forward to the day when you are back up to full health and are able to continue serving me like you once did. It would do me great honor to integrate you into my body so that together, we'll be able to reach that state of pure and utter perfection, as one."

Kimimaro stared silently at the man with shimmering eyes for a moment before smiling back at him warmly, "The honor would be all mine, master."

XXX

**Two days later…**

**Training field three…**

While Sakura had been running up and down her tree like she was a mouse on a wheel, clearly having this exercise down pat before either of the boys, there had been a varying of success between both Sasuke and Naruto over the couple of days following the start of their exercise.

Since the beginning the Uchiha had continued to attack the trunk without mercy, running up to his best mark and leaving a new one a few inches above that and the many ones to follow. Sure he fell and crashed once or twice, but the need to succeed and his goal sitting at the very top of the tree pushed the boy on. Again and again Sasuke went, punching one to two more holes into the side whilst trying to memorize and get a feel for the consistency, and maintain it. The harder he pushed the more he sweated, clearly showing that even a great genius like himself had his limitations. His progress went steady for the next couple of days to follow, during which time he showed incredible improvement.

Naruto on the other hand was the most sporadic in terms of progress. Sure the kid attacked the tree with the same amount of vigor as his rival, but the problem with him was that unlike the genius, he either used too much chakra and ended up punching a hole straight through the tree from the pressure of his footedness or he ended up not molding enough and wound up sliding several feet back down the line before falling altogether. Sure it gave him a good idea of how the exercise was supposed to work; he was just destroying a tree in the process. At least his height increased at the same rate as Sasuke's and his results were in keeping with his reputation as being a hurricane of destruction. That had to count for something, right?

Eventually the blonde got tired of busting through the trunk and tumbling down the tree for the first day and the day after, and so by the third around mid-day he quickly found himself crouching at its base and glaring up at the obstacle stubbornly. For the next hour or so after that he sat there glaring up at the towering pine while Sasuke marched on, doing everything he could to catch up to his rival and surpass him.

The thought of using shadow clones to accelerate his practice did come to Naruto's mind once or twice, but the boy didn't want to flood the entire area with copies and disrupt everybody else's practice. It would have also been in bad taste toward his friends since it definitely would have been overkill for an exercise all three of them were doing and would have been an unnecessary distraction. No. This was something he felt he needed to figure out by himself and with his own body.

The day eventually pulled around into the early afternoon, where Sakura, after putting so much effort into getting her routine to work naturally in the first day and continuing to do the exercise to work on her stamina over the next days to follow, just couldn't hash it anymore and simply collapsed by her tree utterly spent.

Sprawled out and panting, the girl looked across to see how the others were doing. While Sasuke persisted, Naruto just sat across from his 'opponent' and continued to stare up at it like he was having a showdown with the very inanimate object of nature. It was so like him to fight with everything he deemed remotely suitable to battle, so while it wasn't something new to the group it was still absurdly entertaining from a bystander's point of view. The pink haired kunoichi smiled in amusement as Naruto scowled at his tree and scratched his head, before looking across at Sasuke to see him run up again and, upon getting to his mark, kicked off of it when his consistency wavered.

"_I can't believe they're still going at it. Where do those two get all of that energy from?"_ Sakura wondered while breathing hard. _"I'm burned out."_ She'd been working with Naruto on her taijutsu and stamina ever since her first trial period where she showed a natural talent for hard punching, but even after days of actually putting her back into her training, she was still nowhere near where she wanted to be.

It was crazy.

Following a few more minutes of contemplation, Naruto looked over at Sasuke's tree to see the boy make it to latest mark, which was level with his, leave a scar on the trunk with his kunai before jumping off of it. When the genius landed and looked up, the blonde then came to a sudden and almost stunning realization, and grinned.

Seeing the jinchuriki finally stand after crouching for so long had Sasuke and Sakura's immediate attention, the pair watching curiously as Naruto dropped the knife he was holding before running off. At first they thought he was giving up, but after seeing him take a spot about fifty meters away from his tree, he then turned and ran back, letting out a sort of war cry as he charged his trunk down with a look of pure determination and grit on his face.

"FUCK YEAH!" Naruto cried at the top of his lungs, causing everyone including the present Kakashi to sweat drop at his open use of profanity before watching him sprint up the side of the tree. They continued watching him climb back up to his best mark, where he then blew straight past it and left everyone else far behind when he disappeared into the canopy.

The team on the ground stared after him in shock after seeing him vanish behind the leaves, with Sakura sitting up where she was lying in a clear sign of surprise.

"O-kay… that was weird," the kunoichi murmured.

After several minutes of waiting, they then saw Naruto reappear, but instead of running down the side of the tree, they saw that he was walking. When he eventually strolled to about halfway on the tree trunk, he stopped holding up what looked to be a branch with leaves on it. The blonde grinned as he waved it in front of him.

"So _that's_ how you do it," Naruto exclaimed, turning to look down at his teacher and waving the branch. "Kakashi-sensei! I got it!"

The abovementioned Jonin eye smiled over his favorite orange book, "Well done, Naruto-kun." He watched him jump down and land on the ground. "I'm assuming that that's the top branch?"

"Yup!" the blonde exclaimed, holding the thing in front of him, "Snapped it right off. I could have gotten up there easily using both my hands and feet, but this exercise was just too awesome to pass up!"

Sasuke, feeling both disappointed and a little bit left out, walked over to the blonde with the best straight face he could muster, "Hey uhh… Naruto… h-how did you do that?" Yeah, he clearly wasn't really comfortable with asking his life-long rival how the exercise was done, but from looking at his progress and how successful Sakura was, it couldn't hurt to get a few tips.

Looking across at the raven haired boy, Naruto gave him a friendly smile and pointed up at the tree. "You need to focus and maintain a very small amount of chakra to keep you stuck to the tree. Once you figure it out you have to hold it and from there it's a cake walk. There's nothing else to it." He then looked back at the Uchiha and held up his balled fist, "And remember, once you've concentrated all the chakra you need at your feet, you have to yell a battle cry out as loud as you can to give you an adrenaline boost. It helps to focus your chakra flow around your center and allows it to move to your feet better."

Sakura recoiled a little at that advice and furrowed her brow when she processed his last instruction. _"Wait… that doesn't sound right…"_

Appearing a little bit apprehensive, the Uchiha looked back up at the tree he'd been fighting for a better part of the past few days before staring back down at the blonde with a frown. "I don't think… really?"

"Yes," Naruto said in a firm voice while nodding. "That's the most important part."

Glaring tightly, Sasuke looked between both the tree and Naruto a few times in thought. After a couple more moments of meditation, much to the bewilderment of Sakura, the Uchiha also moved back for a running start and braced himself. Upon taking a few deep breaths, the genius then crouched low and charged forward, a determined look on his face as he closed in on his 'opponent.'

"FUCK YEAAAHHHH!" the boy screamed even louder than his rival before mounting the tree and beginning to run up it at full speed. Within seconds he blew past his best marker and continued up into the canopy until he was no longer in sight.

Naruto held it in until he saw his rival disappear before he dropped to the ground laughing uproariously. He continued to do so for the next few minutes, being stared at by a very peeved Sakura and a thoroughly amused Kakashi until the Uchiha decided to come strolling back down to ground level.

"That was ridiculous Naruto. Why'd you say that to Sasuke-kun," Sakura asked in a flustered tone.

The boy continued choking on fits of laughter, "Because… it was funny!"

When Sasuke eventually returned from the canopy walking down the side of his tree and saw the jinchuriki on the ground guffawing his ass off, the genius blushed a deep crimson and scowled deeply before stopping in front of the offender; who recovered shortly afterwards to greet his embarrassed teammate.

"You just made that last part up, didn't you?" Sasuke grumbled.

"Well of course I did."

"Why?"

"I just wanted to see you break character for a change since you never do anything remotely hilarious," Naruto chuckled, wiping tears out of his eyes after steadying his breathing. "Man, it was _so_ worth it."

Sasuke glared at him even harder, "I hate you."

"Whatever you say, teme. You know you enjoyed it," Naruto exclaimed before dropping the branch he'd secured beside his kunai and aiming for his tree again. "Come on! Race yah to the top!"

Looking down at the branch he'd acquired on his own run, Sasuke smirked before also tossing it aside and taking a sprinter's start, "Alright."

"Line up with us, Sakura-chan! Let's race it together!" Naruto called across to the girl, whom was still sitting in her place beside her tree looking distraught.

When the girl heard her name called out and saw both boys smiling at her, Sakura stammered a few times before securing a smirk of her own. Dusting her clothes down and making herself look as presentable as possible, she then jogged over to take a spot beside Naruto, where all three of them then prepped and readied themselves for action. They then looked towards their teacher standing on the side of the clearing, who continued to watch them in interest.

"Sensei?"

Kakashi eye smiled, raising his hand above his head, "Ready…" He saw them all brace themselves and raise their hides. "GO!"

All three members of the team then took off from their spots and ran straight at their trees before sprinting up the towering pillars at full speed. After disappearing in a cloud of dust leaving their sensei to observe from ground level, the small shadow that had been watching the group from behind a nearby tree, belonging to a very familiar Hinata Hyuuga, pulled back a little and smiled fondly.

"_Naruto-kun… he's doing so well."_

It was her off day and one of the many days she was able to find some personal time to herself. Since everybody else was busy but still hanging around the village, Hinata had chosen to spend this period watching her crush training from afar. It was a practice she'd been doing for a while now, all in an effort to learn from the boy and see what made him as strong as he was. There was no questioning the amount of inspiration she got simply observing him.

The team didn't even know the kunoichi from Team 8 was even there as they practiced late into the afternoon, running up and down their trees before eventually calling it a day.

Kakashi couldn't hide the smile on his face as they made their way back to the house, watching Sakura fawn over Sasuke at their success while at the same time Naruto engaged them in conversation, bringing bright expressions to all their faces.

"_They're all growing up so quickly."_

XXX

**Three days later…**

"Ready or not, Swift-chan! Here I come!" Naruto exclaimed, springing across from one roof top to another in pursuit of his old training companion.

After another long day was spent with his team training under Kakashi's supervision, who had again taken the liberty of helping them out in some of the areas where they were weakest, including Sakura's stamina and combat effectiveness, Sasuke's coordination within a group and Naruto's vulnerability to really strong genjutsu and his speed, the latter being at the blonde's behest of course since he wanted to get even faster, the Jonin then decided that it was probably best that the group take a small break. Not wanting to burn his entire team out with too much material and back to back missions, Kakashi felt it would be good for all of them to take a few days off so that they could enjoy themselves with the money they'd earned and perhaps think about the work he'd set out for them.

Not necessarily do, just think.

While Sakura and Sasuke went off to do their own things on one of their first days off approved by their sensei, whatever they were, Naruto decided to live it up by catching up with some old friends around town. This was why immediately upon waking to the morning sun and having a nice breakfast with Tayuya, the boy ran off to find Swift-chan and partake in an activity he hadn't done in a long, LONG while…

Chasing her through Konoha's busy streets.

Just like all the other times the two had gotten together on one of their epic showdowns; it began with a surprise attack. Sitting concealed inside of a park oak tree, Naruto waited for the familiar tell of red to flash by him before springing forth from his hiding place and chasing after it. Like a cheetah flying across plains, but instead of grasslands it was treetops and buildings, the blonde ran after the small, darting bird.

Having not lost any of her moves and speed in the past few months as indicated by how she would often perform an acrobatic loop in mid-air, the mighty swallow Swift led Naruto through some of the toughest and harshest obstacle courses ever conceived by man. Bounding across wide alleys, flying through gaps in fences, sliding through trees, across wires, and springing off of walls, Naruto and Swift engaged in another battle of quick wits, instincts, reflexes and sheer speed. Anyone watching would only see an orange blur flying through the air chasing after a red speck, moving at an equally fast speed.

This comparison was most noticeable when Naruto suddenly had to make ground fall if only for a moment, landing dead center in the middle of the main road directly in front of Shikamaru and Choji, before immediately springing after his opponent when she took off into the upper stories again. Both boys, having been engaged in casual conversation while strolling along, only had a fraction of a second to identify the thing that landed in front of them before he suddenly vanished in a flash.

With a chip hanging from his mouth, the civilian dressed Choji shook his head in bewilderment as he tried to come to terms with what he just saw. "What the heck was that?"

"A mysterious orange blur?" Shikamaru tried to answer, but turned out to be more question than answer.

Back up in the upper parts of the city, the chase continued.

Steadily reaching towards its climax, Swift glided across a stretch of roof, continuing on course with Naruto just inches from her tail before she sharply changed directions. Performing a Star Fox 64 turn, she flew back in the direction she'd come, darting right past the blonde's shoulder when he snapped out to grab her, only to miss. Slamming himself into the roof head first, the boy tumbled and slid on all fours to a stop, spinning around and chasing after the swallow again as fast as he could.

"Nice move! But it'll take more than that to lose me this time, birdie!" Naruto exclaimed, dust kicking up when he vanished into a speed zone all of his own. "I'm three times faster than what I used to be!"

Swift responded by kicking it up a notch, moving into practically supersonic speed and beginning to weave around antennas, chimneys and water towers. Naruto stuck to her as best as he could, like a monkey springing off of every available elevation that stood in his path.

Eventually their chase led to a storage house behind the main postal service, where Swift suddenly darted straight across a lower line of roofs two stories below her sitting over parked, horse-drawn carriages of various sizes and filled with a wide assortment of goods for transportation. Taking aim as he approaches the end of the building he had been chasing the bird over as she continues on a linear path, the boy grins and without a second thought or care, leaps straight after her in a stunning long jump. In the blink of an eye, his body was right on top of hers.

"BUSTED!" Naruto's hands snap out and clamps down on the bird, with Swift letting out a shrill cry of surprise when she's snatched right out of the air. The blonde laughs triumphantly as he falls towards the roofs over the line of horses, landing gracefully on one foot…

Only to have the area he lands on cave in and causing his body to go straight through the tiles, straight through the tarp roof of a carriage and straight into a stack of crates. He smashes into them, bounces off and slams into the carriage floor on his back. Swift still in his hands, the jinchuriki barely manages to regain his bearings until the stacks of crates surrounding collapse on top of him, burying him under tons of wood and barrels. A loud clatter echoes out from the carriage, and several seconds after the noises fade, the chaos was followed by a single, muffled exclamation.

"Ow."

"What was that?" a new voice suddenly speaks up and the sound of footsteps outside enters the picture. Poking his head into view, a man dressed in green, courier shinobi uniform sticks his head through the entrance and looks around. Because the cart was so tall and the man was so focused on the barrels and crates inside the wagon, he doesn't take notice that one of the canvas sheets above had come loose.

A moment later, another person appears, this time a tradesman dressed in travel gear, poncho and a wide-brimmed straw hat covering most of the upper parts of his face, "Something wrong?"

The courier ninja pointed inside the wagon, "Some of the crates up at the front fell."

"Ah, that stuff. Don't worry. It's all just tools and heavy-duty parts. Nothing to worry about."

"Oh, good," the courier ninja exclaimed before pulling his head back out, scratching it. "Wonder what caused it to collapse though."

"I think Bessy is just getting restless," the man in the hat replied, nodding towards the horse drawing the wagon. They saw the animal kick at the ground and whine, showing them that it was ready to move. "Anyway, does all the paperwork check out?"

"Yeah. You're all good here," the courier shinobi replied, looking down at his clipboard and checking the signatures. "So you're making a delivery for _Gato Shipping and Transport_? That's interesting."

"Uh-huh. The man writes big checks. How can anybody say no to him?" the man chuckled. "I've done a lot of odd jobs for his company in the past, but I've never met with the guy directly; just his staff and the people who work for him."

"I heard he was having some problems recently over there in Wave country… something about a uhh… demon… sea monster? You know anything that?"

"Nope. It's probably just some silly rumor… a story told by sailors and fishermen to spook the locals," the tradesmen replied with a careless shrug. He then nodded towards the cart, "All I care about is taking this stuff down to the bay and getting it across to the main warehouse. I'm catching a ferry to the other side and back; free of charge. There's also some stuff I have to pick up over there and they want me to do it direct."

"They must really like you if they're asking you to personally oversee the transaction," the courier exclaimed, pulling the extra documents from his clipboard and handing them back over. He also ripped off another slip and handed it to the delivery man. "Show this to the guards up front and they'll let you through."

"Will do," the trader replied brightly, straightening out all of his paperwork and bowing. "Thank you kindly."

After a parting wave, the tradesmen hopped onto his carriage and kicked his horse into life. Slowly but surely, the transport was steered out of the loading bay, across the courtyard, and began making its way down the main highway to the front gate. Once the cart and its driver was out of sight of the quad, the courier ninja was about to head back inside until he noticed a bright patch of light on the floor and looked up.

When he did, he saw the space in the tiled pagoda above and raised an eyebrow. "Why's there a hole in the ceiling?"

Just as instructed, the man drawing the wagon presented his paperwork to the shinobi guarding the entrance and he was let through without any fuss.

Thanks to this, the Chunin watching over the main entrance had no idea that the man was also transporting something else of value with him that was in no way related to the crates he was taking to Wave.

Like all those years before, Swift-chan flew out of the gap in the boxes and landed on top of a nearby barrel, looking down to see the unconscious Naruto's fingers twitching from being buried under several hundred kilos of cargo. A low groan emitted from the pile as the carriage trundled along the bumpy road, causing the bird to shake her head and look towards the closed door of the wagon worryingly.

Ruffling her feathers, the bird spoke words in her language that could only be translated to one thing.

"_Here we go again…"_

The way she said it though sounded like she had this planned from the get-go. Weird…

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

* * *

**Author's Note:** This chapter was heaps fun to write and I hope you all enjoyed it.

Due to realizing how cliché I wrote the first version of the Wave Arc exactly like before, I had to rewrite it and therefore am changing all of the chapters I have written already. So, guess what everyone, you're in for a new and original Wave Arc from yours truly that still borders the series you're familiar with, but have changed it to my liking.

I hope you all liked this chapter and noticed the development of all the characters in it. Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto's steady progress as a group, the bickering between rivals and banter, Naruto finally getting to the Kyuubi and developing their relationship from one-sided to friendly, where they aren't able to fight in sync yet, but are still able to trade shots at one another and argue. There still needs to be a lot of growth in that area. Kakashi is actually training his team, which is good, and all the other little things.

Also, a couple of things. A few of you may notice this, but I was inspired to write Neji and Naruto's first fight based off of the fight between Vorg and Wally from Hajime no Ippo, with Neji being the genius Vorg and Naruto being the wild Wally. Neji, of course, this being the first time anyone has ever staggered him and showed him up, had a bit of sense knocked into him, which of course will get him to think about his prejudices and how he judges people. He's sort of like Miyata in a way with that suave attitude, except with the ridiculous belief in faith. Hopefully that punch shook him up a little.

I look forward to where you guys will think I'm taking this now and hope you look forward to the next chapters.


	11. Storm Clouds

**NARUTO**

**Drifting**

_Storm Clouds_

**Two days later…**

"Shithead! SHITHEAD! Where are you?" Tayuya called out as she searched the village streets up and down for her missing roommate. Too bad the name she was using to call out for him was earning her some very odd and disapproving stares from the villagers surrounding her, which quickly had her change her approach. "Damn it! Naruto! NARUTO! Oi! Where the hell are you, you idiot!"

A couple days earlier, on the afternoon she retired from her latest assignment with her teammates, the red head had waited patiently for her training companion and crush to return home. After hours of sitting around and watching television well into the night, Tayuya's immediate thought on the blonde's continued absence was that he was probably out on another long evening hanging out in Konoha's surrounding forests. Since she knew the jinchuriki well enough and knew what his habits were like, she figured he would be out for another all-nighter playing with his forest friends and decided to wait for him until morning.

However, when morning came and Tayuya found her room empty with no trace of Naruto to speak of, she started to worry. On that first day, she was patient about his lack of appearance and continued to wait for him to show up, deciding to occupy her time with training and hanging out with her teammates to put her mind at ease. It was when she got back and found their apartment still devoid of life she decided to finally go look for him.

Immediately on the following morning, Tayuya found herself traversing the village streets of _Konohagakure_ for the missing jinchuriki. She started out at the places where she knew the boy hung out most: Ichiraku, the _Hokage Monument_, the dango store, the weapons shop, the hot springs and wherever else he visited in his off time when not training. When she searched the places, asked around and came out with nothing, she then turned to the next subject of question on her list in his many friends, classmates and teachers.

It took some doing, but since a couple of the teams were out on missions today, it made her job a little bit easier since she had fewer faces to approach to make her inquiries. She found Kiba and Akamaru and asked if they'd seen him. The Inuzuka said he didn't, but said he would keep a nose out for him, and so she moved on without any trouble. Tayuya then tried Iruka, but the man also said he hadn't seen him and asked if everything was okay with them. The red head thanked him for his concern and said that nothing bad had gone on between them, and that he'd just up and disappeared.

She also went to ask the other team instructors she was able to find if they knew of his whereabouts, but they couldn't give her anything, not even Anko and that woman knew everything for some weird reason. Creepy.

Deciding to go to a more reliable source, Tayuya approached Naruto's teammates Sakura and Sasuke, both of whom were still on extended break thanks to them learning that Kakashi had been sent on a mission. While the former said she'd only been hanging out with Ino and the Uchiha over the past couple of days, the latter was a bit more of a dick about his answer. He merely shrugged and walked off, leaving Tayuya with her douche-bag response for the day before continuing on unimpeded.

Coaching to a stop in the middle of the main highway, Tayuya scratched her head and looked around the surrounding street for a moment, wondering where her friend could have possibly gone. It was while she was surveying the area she then spotted a couple of familiar faces on the side of the road. Smiling when she recognized Shikamaru and Choji, the red head marched over to them and waved in greeting when she got the boys' attentions. "Hey guys!"

"Oh, hey, Tayuya," Choji chirped, while the Nara sitting beside him on the same bench yawn-nodded lazily. "What's up?"

"Have you two seen shithead anywhere?"

"By _shithead_, I'm assuming you mean Naruto, right?" Shikamaru asked for clarification, picking his ear while looking up at the frazzled red head.

"Yeah, Naruto. He didn't come home a couple of days ago, so I figured he was sleeping out in the forest or on the training fields again. But when he didn't show up the next day I got worried," Tayuya said, looking between the two with notable concern on her face. Since it was rare for them to say the girl express such appearances, the two males became more attentive towards the issue currently plaguing her and sat up. "You guys haven't seen him, have you?"

Thinking for a moment, with Choji looking towards him inquisitively, Shikamaru scratched his team and murmured to himself before looking up in realization and turning back to the kunoichi. "The last we saw him was two days ago. He was moving like hell across the rooftops towards the transport and services district."

"Moving like hell?"

"Yeah. We saw he was chasing something small and red across the village, but they were moving so fast we couldn't see what it was," Shikamaru replied while rubbing the back of his head. "He just dropped down onto the road right in front of us before taking off a split second later. I had no idea a human could move like that."

"Chasing something?" Tayuya murmured, rubbing her thin over the details the boy was able to give him before blinking in remembrance. "He must have been chasing after Swift." The swallow she and Naruto knew. They would always run into her every so often whenever she wanted to play and trained with her. Out of all the animals they met and knew around the village, the jinchuriki knew that bird the most and would always chase after her whenever he wanted to do some cardio and speed testing.

So, he'd been chasing Swift on the day he disappeared? And towards the transportation district?

…

…

Shit… maybe he…

"Thanks, guys!" Tayuya exclaimed, nodding and waving to the two Genin before leaping towards the rooftops in a blur.

Before Shikamaru and Choji could ask what was happening or offer anymore words of concern, the red head was already well out of sight. Staring after her for a few seconds in silence, the Akimichi then turned to his less motivated companion to see his eyes become droopy again and nodded after the retreating kunoichi. "What do you think that's all about?"

"Don't know," Shikamaru exclaimed, yawning again before resting his head back. "Whatever it is… it must be real troublesome…"

Yep. As long as he did one good service for the day, then that was all he needed to sleep soundly tonight.

He figured he could skip the many hours of daylight they still had left to go and went right to the sleeping soundly part.

XXX

**Meanwhile…**

**Many miles elsewhere…**

For any traveler worth his salt, to move across country to the borders of the _Land of Fire_ from _Konohagakure_ in any direction along the main highways without stopping, the journey was at least a three day march, give or take depending on how fast you wanted to go and where. To get to the countries to the north and west took a bit more time then to get to the nations to the east or south because there was a lot more traffic, heavy terrain and roads needed to be negotiated. This pretty much meant that no journey to any other village or town in the regions north-west of the hidden leaf was the same and that the conditions of the path were in a constant state of change.

The south was a lot tamer and had smoother stretches of highway, meaning that missions to the areas in that general direction were relatively easy going. Not much went on down here, save for a handful of skirmishes between mercenaries and the occasional roadside robbery, but knowing this didn't bother the straw-hat wearing transporter one bit as he directed his horse on down the dirt road for the _Land of Waves_.

Not much happened upon leaving Konoha; just a quiet trek down into the lowlands and to the coast, where he was able to spend a night at an ocean-side inn before checking in with the ferrymen. Because he had traveled down here on a horse that had carried all of the weight for him, it meant he had not only moved faster than an ordinary person would on foot but his journey had also been less perilous.

His island destination was located directly south of the _Land of Fire_, divided by a wide channel an estimated kilometer away from the mainland. To this day the only way to get to the island nation from the mainland was by boat, but thanks to a series of extenuating circumstances, transportation to the small nation had suddenly become a lot more difficult for the everyday villager and fisherman.

This was probably due to _Gato International_ taking control of all shipping and transport in the region. Because they owned the stretch of ocean and waters surrounding the island, you needed to pay a steep bill to operate in the area. There was basically a tax on everything boat and fishing related, which meant even buying a ticket or hiring a ferry to cruise across to either side was expensive. Lord only knew how much this has impacted the economy and quality of living over on the community, whose primary source of income came from fishing and trade.

While the wily transporter making the delivery for _Gato International_ expressed some concerns over the situation, he was only one man. Not only that, but he was a man who had a job to do and could only worry about so much in his life in a world more turbulent then most. Upon gathering up his gear and making sure his wagon was in one piece, doing a stock check from the entrance and not noticing anything out of place, the very next morning he met with the ferry captain who had been organized to take him across the channel down on the dock and saddled up for the ride. After a quick hop-skip across the channel to the island, he then took his loyal steed and charge down Wave's wharf, the last leg of his journey, before finally arriving at his destination.

The main harbor on the island, while not as impressive as the waterfront he'd set off from, was made up of a couple of warehouses and buildings, with a series of fishing boats and small ferries parked around the jetties. Most of the transports in the area were disused or rundown, all of them being watched over by groups of rather intimidating men bearing weapons. This sight alone was enough to tell the weary traveler just how much of the island had become enveloped in the Gato banner.

The looks he received from the mean looking guards standing around the port worried him. But due to the fact that he'd come here under 'legal' circumstances and the fact that he'd been invited meant that he was safe from being lynched by any of the hired guns possibly looking for trouble. Thanks to this he arrived at his desired location safely, and parked his horse and carriage at the very back of the warehouse in the off-loading bay.

"You Kenta?" the warehouse boss waiting up on the walkway asks upon seeing the traveler hop off of his wagon.

"Yes, sir."

Nodding, the man in the suit waved his clipboard down at him before slipping it under his arm, "I'll have two of my boys come down and help you unload the stuff. When they're done, we'll talk about our next shipment."

"Right."

Upon seeing the official walk off, Kenta then proceeded to tie his horse down. As he tended to Bessy, he failed to notice the back of his wagon open up and a dazed, blonde haired teen stick his body out. Groaning lowly and gripping the side of his head, the youngster leapt down from the carriage and walked out of the loading bay, looking up just as his bird companion also came out of the wagon and landed on his shoulder. The fire-breasted swallow chirped brightly while she sat on the stumbling boy, only to have him groan and shush her.

"Not so loud Swift-chan. My head's killing me." It must have been from that fifty kilo set of wrenches that fell on him earlier.

Staggering out of view of the docking bay, Naruto just missed the sight of the transporter Kenta coming around to check on his goods. Unlashing the canvas strings and pulling the entrance open completely, he hopped in to make sure all of his crates were in good condition. After which he then looked up and recoiled a little in surprise when he notice the sheet above him had come loose.

"Huh? Since when was that open?" Shrugging when he figured it just undid itself on the rough road, he sealed it shut.

Once he'd made good tracks out of the warehouse, Naruto turned back around to face the facility and frowned. "Damn it, next time I won't jump so far so fast. That was way too heavy foot- HEY! Wait a second!" Freezing on the spot, the boy looked over the grungy old warehouse he'd just left before looking around the area surrounding him. "This isn't… WHAT THE HELL?!"

Recovering, Naruto dashed away from the buildings on the dockside and scrabbled up the nearby hill. Arriving at the top, he turned to face the whole dock, Swift buzzing around him and waiting patiently for him to get the full picture of his current situation. After taking in the whole area, the jinchuriki finally spoke in a voice clearly reflecting his bewilderment.

"Where the hell am I?! This isn't Konoha! Where…" His eyes widened in realization at what must have happened and he slapped himself in the forehead. "For the love of… AGAIN?! This happened to me again?!" He then turned to see the swallow hovering next to him land on his shoulder. "What are the odds of this shit happening to me twice?!"

Swift shrugged and chirped.

"I get knocked out and wind up in the back of a carriage that takes me to another part of the fucking continent hundreds of miles away from my village, where I end up stuck until I figure out a way back home. Is it too much to ask to at least be conscious while making one of these trips?" Naruto asked to the bird, breathing a sigh before glancing back out onto the port and the ocean he could see beyond it. Hearing the sounds of clutter in the warehouses below with the sound of coastal waves filling in the background, the young Genin relaxed a little and massaged his scalp to check if he was still in good condition. Feeling no cuts or splinters, Naruto returned to a normal standing position and slipped his hands into his pockets. "Well… at least I get to visit the sea for the first time. That's a plus."

Swift chirped merrily from his shoulder, getting him to look back down at her strangely.

"Two days this time? Man. When I get knocked out, I get knocked out." The bird whistled at him, which had a frown appear on his face. "We're on an island? Heh. That's new." He glanced out over the line of the sea. "Never been on an island before. So I'm guessing that's the mainland over there on the other side." Pointing out towards the distant landmass he could see on the horizon to the north got another chirp from Swift and brought a smile to his face. "Hey. As long as we're here, may as well have a look around."

Dashing down the hill and onto the beach, Naruto began the not too complicated task of following it, all in an effort to find out as much about this island as he possibly could. While it would have made more sense for him to return to the port to ask around for 'directions', something told the blonde haired wanderer that if he was to return to the very same place where he was unknowingly transported to, he wasn't going to be getting a very pleasant reception. As far as he was concerned, he was a stowaway _and_ a trespasser. Normally he wouldn't have had a problem with this, but the last time this happened to him it happened in a country on the outskirts, far away from any borders.

This being an island and that being a port, he was technically right on top of the border, which was potentially a bad thing.

He didn't exactly know where this island was or knew anything about it. For all intents and purposes, it could be privately owned or attached to a much larger landmass. Either way, if he was going to be interrogating someone for information, it was going to be under more comfortable circumstances and preferably with someone who wouldn't try to kill him if he gave away too much information.

Thank Kami he left his headband back home. Being a Genin from a hidden village, particularly from one of the most well known in the world, didn't grant him that many privileges as a member of their forces, and being a shinobi in general didn't exactly give him as many freedoms as he would get as an ordinary civilian. Without the plate and brand around his neck, he was presented with one of a few opportunities to stretch his legs and cut loose.

This stroll along the beach would have to be one of them.

Having never been to a coast or beach before, Naruto took the rare chance given to him to kick off his sandals and jacket, and dive on into the calm blue to have some fun. Running around in the shallows for a while, catching some fish swimming close to shore and exploring the small reefs in the area, while also collecting some shells as souvenirs, he then exited the water and continued on walking to dry himself off. Once he had all his clothes back on and had toasted himself under the beating warm sun, he proceeded with exploring the island beneath its many precipices. His path eventually led him to a stretch of sand where, upon reaching what he assumed to be its center, he could no longer see the main continent on the horizon, as it was now on the other side.

"How big is this island, exactly?" Naruto asked himself, looking up the cliffs and hills into the forests he could see above. "I don't want to be here for too long. I just want to check it out and go back home. Tayuya-chan and the others must be worried sick about me." He then looked across at Swift sitting on his shoulder. "Your friends must be missing you as well."

The bird whistled brightly and ruffled her feathers.

"And your mate too. Yes. Of course. How can I forget?" Before he could gain any traction into a follow-up topic, Naruto suddenly coached to a stop when he spotted an odd structure sitting at the end of the beach.

Putting a hand over his eyes to shield himself from the sun and scrutinizing the object in the distance, Naruto blinked when he saw that it was a small shack with a dock stretching out from its porch over the water. There wasn't a boat or a raft of any kind tied to it; it was just a miniscule building with a jetty and no outstanding qualities about it.

Wandering what something like that was doing all the way out there and why it had some smoke coming from the top of it, the blonde haired wanderer and his companion decided to go take a closer look. The jinchuriki closed in on the shack for the next minute or so, finding that as he drew nearer the shack appeared more dilapidated then he originally thought it was. Whoever built it all the way out here didn't focus much on taking care of its exterior, being exposed to the sea air all this time. Maybe it was just a shack that was meant for storage or something.

Nevertheless, the smoke coming from its chimney indicated signs of life, which meant it served a different purpose.

Hoping that there was someone there who could give him an idea of where he was, seeing as that he was safely out of the way of anyone possessing any kind of authority or force to implement any kind of laws regarding his presence in the area, Naruto stepped onto the shack's porch without worry or hesitation.

Walking around the beachside structure, the jinchuriki was able to see for himself that the ocean breezes and winds had really racked the place. The wood creaked, the surface was edgy and brittle, and any patchwork was at best middling. Though he had no complaints or any judgments on the person who owned it, Naruto just couldn't help but take note of these little details. He was still curious as to what or who was inside this building, since he could now sense a life form behind its walls. It also appeared to be aware of his presence, because as he moved around to its entrance he could sense the figure moving inside.

Sniffing the air, Naruto blinked when he picked up something odd… something he proceeded to investigate further as he stopped at the ocean-facing entrance. His bird friend twitched and ruffled her feathers in a show of curiosity, as she too picked up on the trace signs of something peculiar hanging in the air.

Naruto rapped on the door gently, leaning in to listen and ascertain that whoever was inside heard him loud and clear. "Hello. Is anyone there?" He knew someone was in there, he just felt like asking in order to give the impression that he wasn't aware they were.

Unless he got a response soon, he would continue to do so.

Remaining silent and still for a few seconds, the jinchuriki tried again. He rapped against the door lightly and waited quietly.

Again and again he tried, with the exact same interval of pause between each attempt. He tried five times in total until he picked up on the distinct sound of footsteps behind the door and pulled back a tad. He frowned when he received no words for his efforts and went in for a different approach. "Okay, I know there's someone living here. Please. I just want to ask you a few questions."

"Go away," the voice of a girl suddenly shot back. "Leave me alone."

Naruto smiled at finally eliciting a response from the owner, looking back at the door with his knuckles still held up. "I've come here on good terms."

"I don't care. Go away."

"I'm just here to talk. I swear," Naruto insisted, not wanting to leave without first seeing the person living here for himself and having his questions answered. Judging from the size of the island he had managed to gauge thus far, he didn't know how long it would be till he met another person, especially this far out here. Not to mention he was curious about the owner of this small shack and why she was going through so much trouble to hide from him.

Maybe some more information regarding his situation would help her some?

"Look. I just arrived on this island and I don't really know where I am. I was hoping somebody around here could help me, but I didn't want to go to the port or the town because I figured I might get in trouble if I did." While no stranger to trouble, after being an official ninja for more than a month, he'd learned one or two things about procedure. It was a good thing that he did because he was being way more cautious now then when he was when he was still in the academy. He'd taught himself to consider his situation before acting recklessly. Evolution at its finest. "Could you help me out, please?"

He didn't receive a reply for another minute after that. Stepping back a little, Naruto looked the door over, his heightened sixth sense telling him that the girl behind the door was watching him from a place he couldn't see her; through a crack or a crevice.

Not too long afterwards, he heard the sound of locks clicking yonder barrier, moments before the rickety door crept open. Looking towards the gap, Naruto saw a girl his age and height peering out at him.

On first glance the boy could see she was quite timid, had long purple hair tied into two pigtails, was wearing a blue tunic tied at the waist, shorts, and was covered in bandages. His initial thoughts upon seeing her was that she was hurt, but after a few moments of examining her through the small space and getting a feel for her aura, Naruto realized that she wasn't sick or injured at all. In fact, she appeared perfectly normal.

Anyone with that much gauze wrapped around them would have been bedridden, but not her.

Naruto smiled pleasantly in greeting, "Hey there."

In response, the girl frowned suspiciously at him, a direct opposite to her previously timorous outlook. "You're… not here to pick on me… or throw stuff at me?"

The blonde recoiled, "What? Why would I want to do that?"

"Everybody else does," the girl muttered back, her eyes searching him for something foul and underhanded. "How do I know that you won't?"

"Because I won't. Picking on people… that's horrible," Naruto replied, looking slightly offended. Granted he did technically _throw_ stuff at people back at his village… well… all of the villagers to be exact, it was all good-natured fun and a means for them to recognize his existence. Plus the villagers had been real jerks to him ever since he was little, so in a way they had it coming. What he really meant by his words was that he wouldn't throw shit at anyone without a damn good reason to do so. This then brought him around to another topic of interest that had him raise an eyebrow at the weary teen, "Why do people pick on you?"

"I don't see how that's any of your business," the purple haired girl snapped before glaring even harder at him. "You said you wanted to ask me some questions about where you are, right? Well ask them and go."

Perplexed, Naruto looked around momentarily and gestured towards the door with a friendly glimmer, "May I come in?"

"No," the girl replied.

"Why not?"

"Because I said so," the teenager replied, her glare easing up a little, "If that's all the questions you have to ask me, good day." She then slammed the door in his face.

On her side, the purple haired recluse breathed a sigh of relief, waiting for a moment to see if the stranger she had just dismissed would try to speak again or shout at her in outrage. The latter was a response she was most expecting from the action she just took, and one she was already well prepared to put up with.

However, when a minute ticked by and nothing but silence prevailed, the girl then snapped all the locks on her door shut, and pushed off of the entrance to return to her living room to finish preparing lunch around the fire. After moving down the hall, she slid her main room door open to continue with arrangements, only to receive the shock of her life when she saw the boy from outside sitting on one of the cushions beaming across at her, his bird companion astride his shoulder.

"Hello!"

The surprise had her stumble backwards, "W-What? How did you get in here?"

"The window," Naruto replied brightly, pointing towards said make-shift entrance, which was still open and letting the cool sea air in. "A breeze must have closed your front door before you could let me in and got stuck. I got worried when you didn't open it after a minute, so I decided to let myself in."

The resident scowled at her intruder, "It was locked and bolted."

"Oh. Was it?" Naruto asked coyly and giving a light-hearted giggle, "I guess I've been breaking into places for so many years I didn't notice." Laughing off her glare and the awkwardness of the situation he had placed himself in, the blonde gradually came down from his ecstatic exclamations to address her politely. "Since I'm here now, may I have something to drink, please? I haven't had anything for two days. I'm famished."

Frowning deeply at the boy for some time, the girl reluctantly went off to get some refreshments. While she was doing so she couldn't help but wonder who in the world this weird kid was and where the heck he'd come from, not to mention how he was able to unlock five latches, three pads, and two tubular locks, all of which were positioned on the inside, from the outside so speedily in less than a minute. That just wasn't physically possible.

Was he a magician or something?

Deciding not to dwell on it too much and make her own safety top priority, the girl returned to her guest with a teapot and two cups on a tray, where she found the blonde haired stranger making use of her chopping board to cut up the ingredients to the lunch she had been preparing before being interrupted. By this time, Naruto had handily diced up the meat, garlic, herbs, divided the salts, and poured in the oyster sauce with water, which was already starting to boil under the fire he'd set, and was now in the process of chopping the vegetables.

The girl stood in the living room's second entrance in silence and watched the jinchuriki as he worked in adding the spices.

Once the first lots were in, Naruto stuck the wooden spoon with the contents and stirred to make sure the meat and sauces didn't burn. Upon sensing his host standing on the edge of the plain, the blonde beamed brightly while continuing to watch his handiwork. "I used to make stuff like this at home all the time when I was younger. A quick recipe like this is no problem. Plus it's perfect to have when you don't have anything else planned for the next couple of days."

The girl frowned. "It's bad manners to break into someone's home and start cooking."

"Oh you don't mind, do you?" Naruto asked sheepishly, pointing down at the pot that was steaming while looking up at the girl.

Smelling the air and picking up the aroma of a delicious meal on the way, the teenager breathed out in resignation, "Not really, since you're already half finished." She _was_ pretty hungry after all.

"Cool," Naruto chirped, continuing on with his task as if this were his own home and he wasn't intruding on someone's personal space. He was just meddlesome in that way. It was part of his charm.

After throwing in the rest of the ingredients to let it boil for the next half an hour, Naruto then directed his attention to the now present owner of the shack. Sitting across from one another, the blonde helped himself to the tea the girl kindly provided and basked in the silence. As much as he appreciated the girl not making an effort to kick him out, figuring that she wasn't the type to act out violently and didn't find his presence that big of a threat, much to his relief, he tried to make the atmosphere as sociably acceptable as possible. He did this through setting a comfortable distance between them, smiling pleasantly, establishing eye contact, and making sure that the aura he was giving off was warm and welcoming.

Naruto had no hostile intentions here. None at all.

"So. What's your name?"

"Isaribi," the girl replied in a monotone voice, expression remaining empty and devoid of emotion.

Naruto grinned, "It's nice to meet you, Isaribi." He looked around her quaint little home. It was much better on the inside then it was on the outside, but he made this note as more of an observation than passing judgment. "I like your place."

"Thanks."

"You own it?"

"Yes. I built it myself," Isaribi replied in a low voice, not bothering to look the boy in the eyes as he gazed across at her. "Recently I've had to move away from my old home in _Umi no Kuni_ (Land of the Sea) to here due to my work."

"Really?" Naruto tilted his head, "What do you do for work?"

"I'm a deep sea diver," Isaribi stated, furrowing her brow. "Also a fisherman. The catches I bring in and the people I do work for every once in a while really like what I do for them."

"I see. No wonder your home is built by the beach. You can go to work anytime you want to," Naruto said brightly.

Isaribi nodded. "Whenever the weather is good and the tides are high, I can pick and choose when I want to go to work. But… there are other times when I have to meet certain dates and deadlines… so I do have set work every now and again."

"Not today?"

"No," Isaribi shook her head. "Today I've got some time off to rest."

Understanding things so far, Naruto moved back to stirring the food. While he was doing so, the swallow perched on his shoulder hopped over to Isaribi from his arm to the floor and onto her lap. The girl looked down at the bird curiously as she chirped and tilted her head this way and that, looking her over from head to toe. The purple haired teenager raised a hand and reached out to the swallow gently, unable to resist its approach.

Much to her surprise, Swift did not leap or skit away from her when she gently petted it on the head. After rubbing her finger against the animal's chest in a friendly manner and retracting ever so slightly, the bird waited for a moment before flapping back to her partner and onto his shoulder, followed by his head. The bird sung a sweet tune while Isaribi gave the bird her smallest of smiles.

When silence etched on for the next fifteen minutes, Naruto panned back to the girl from the lunch stewing over the fire and looked her in the eyes. When she saw his gaze lock with hers, she averted her attention downwards to avoid his piercing blues.

"Swift-chan really likes you," Naruto exclaimed, nodding up to the bird on top of his head.

"Does she?"

"She doesn't normally trust strangers. She always keeps her distance from others because people tend to be unpredictable with animals, but she has no problems with getting close to you," Naruto said, looking at the girl thoughtfully while she remained facing away. "You're a kind person… Swift-chan can sense that."

"What would she know? She's just a bird," Isaribi replied darkly, brow furrowing. "But I guess it makes sense… seeing as that I'm not normal. Just a sick person who was spirited away and feared by everyone…"

A little bit caught off guard by the girl's sudden response, Naruto momentarily looked her over again before frowning. Looking around the house, remembering how isolated he saw it was when he was outside, how beat up it was and how far he'd already walked to get here, a very familiar feeling suddenly came to him. After hearing the girl say what she did in such a harsh whisper, Naruto finally started to understand why this lovely looking person was acting this way.

This was one of these times why he was thankful for asking so many questions and trying to learn as much as he could about everyone around him.

After several minutes of silence that seemingly went by in hours, the blonde continued on boldly, "Is that why you live all on your own, all the way out here?"

Isaribi visibly stiffened at this and shut her eyes. "So what if it is?"

Naruto frowned, "I'm only asking because I just want to understand." He leaned forward a little more. "Swift-chan can feel that you're a good person, so can I… but what I don't know is why you say people are so mean to you." His expressions as well as his eyes conveyed his feelings on the matter. "Maybe I can help."

The girl's frown grew as she turned away more. "Why do you care? To you I'm really just some freak living alone in a shack away from everybody else." She shut her eyes tightly and her body stiffened. "You'll never be able to understand what I've been through."

Hearing this had Naruto clench his fists tightly. Breathing out, the jinchuriki stood up and unzipped his jacket. When the purple haired girl heard him move, she cut towards him suspiciously, only to see him lift his shirt and show her his stomach. At first baffled by his actions, Isaribi then drew back when she saw a series of black marks appear around his naval, a sight he was able to produce when he started to mold chakra. The spiral pattern in the center surrounded by a formula of unidentifiable signs made themselves known to all those in the room and had Isaribi staring in stunned silence.

"I-Is that…?"

"A seal," Naruto finished, getting a nod from the teen. "If you know what this is then you probably know what it's for… or you have an idea of what it's for anyway." He lowered his shirt back over and plopped down on the ground once again, his bird companion hopping from his head to his shoulder to perch. "Kakashi-sensei told me that seals can serve a number of different functions, mostly hiding stuff inside of objects. You can seal all kinds of things using fuinjutsu, like paper, boxes, crates, animals, people, whole ships…" He then grinned wryly when he reached the end, "Even a demon the size of a mountain."

Isaribi's eyes widened and she sat up, now staring at the boy a little more cautiously as he rubbed his stomach. When she backed up a little and found herself now a bit more fearful in his presence, she then stopped when she realized where exactly her current route of response was taking her and gasped. Reaching a hand up, she pressed it against her face where the bandages were, rubbing them gently before panning to face the blonde again.

"You're a… jinchuriki…?" She'd heard about them before. They were a group of people in the shinobi nations who used their bodies as containers for enormous entities of chakra called biju. Whether it was by their choice or not, basically after taking a tailed beast into their body and becoming its prison, that person would hold onto it for the rest of their life until the day they died, and a new caretaker had to be found.

Because a jinchuriki's body basically served as a vessel for something that possessed immense amounts of power sometimes beyond comprehension, the person serving as the demon's host became something of an object, a creature meant to be feared, and an individual who wasn't ordinary. They became something that was unpredictable… something dangerous.

Having a massive demon capable of myriad levels of destruction living in the same vicinity as normal humans made people fear them and keep their distance. Simply put, most of the people that became jinchuriki became outcasts in their homes.

After seeing Naruto nod to her question in confirmation, Isaribi slowly but surely started to look towards him with a more open mind.

"Yep. A genuine, flesh and bones jinchuriki." The blonde giggled sheepishly and rubbed his head, "It's fine though. Having to lug around a massive pile of orange fur wherever I had to go wasn't all bad. Sure everyone stayed away from me, but I just ignored them and filled my time up with other stuff to distract me." He shrugged thoughtfully. "Cooking is always good."

Isaribi pulled on one of her pigtails nervously before looking back up at her intruder, her eyes reflecting much more emotion than before. You could say that she'd been moved by Naruto's opening up to her, which in turn started to jimmy open her own lock.

Beaming, Naruto edged forward again. "You and I aren't so different," the jinchuriki stated assuredly. "I'm somebody that the people in my village ignored and hated. Some of the kids picked on me, threw stuff at me, and beat me up for being different, and others chased me away. The adults too. I hated it at first and wanted to do something about all of their glaring and sneering, but I realized hating other people in that way wouldn't have solved anything. It would have proven that I really _was_ some kind of monster and would have made things a lot worse for me."

"Th-Then… what did you do?" Isaribi asked, leaning towards him expectantly.

Naruto grinned brightly and raised a fist. "I bit my teeth and pushed through the storm." The girl looked a little confused at his confident response, which earned her a flash from his cocky smile. "I went out and did stuff; had fun, made people acknowledge me, and just spent my time being an all-around royal pain in the butt. Doing all that stuff made most of the villagers forget that I was a jinchuriki and made them view me as a troublemaker instead. I kicked the shit out of all the older kids that bullied me and claimed all of their territory, I trained a lot to distract myself," He chuckled and rubbed Swift on the head with the knuckle of his finger, "And I made friends." The bird chirped happily at his gesture.

Isaribi stared in awe at the boy as he referenced the little creature beside him, before pulling back a little when his focus fell onto her again.

"Soon… I wasn't alone anymore," Naruto exclaimed. "You just need to find friends who understand you and don't mind you for being you." He dipped his head firmly and pointed at himself. "That's what I believe anyway."

After listening to what he had to say, Isaribi remained silent for a good, long time. When a few minutes passed and the food in the center of the home continued to bubble, Isaribi breathed in deeply and reached up to grab the bandages around her face. From that point, Naruto watched as she proceeded to undo the gauze covering her, moving it away neatly before allowing most of it to fall away. When it did, the jinchuriki and Swift saw exactly what she was hiding underneath all those bandages.

She wasn't sick, injured, scarred or diseased at all. In fact, it was completely different to what Naruto had been expecting. The girl was covered in what looked like scales. Her face held the telltale pigmentations of brittle skin that did not belong to a human, yet was grafted into her like she was born with it. It looked more fishlike than anything else and certainly sat out of place of the rest of her flesh. But despite this, Naruto didn't move away or recoil.

Truthfully, he was more curious than ever about what he was seeing and edged even closer, only for Isaribi to shrink away from him and try to hide, despite having shown him her condition.

"This is what I really am," Isaribi replied in a quiet voice, placing a hand over her cheek where flecks of fishlike features could be seen. "Years ago I was taken away by these shinobi to an underground lab where I was experimented on. They gave me the ability to transform into a creature that could breathe underwater as well as on land, and swim faster than any other fish alive. But even though I was able to transform and take the beast's form… I couldn't turn completely back into a human… and as a result I have these marks whenever I return to normal."

Naruto blinked in shock, "Th-They experimented on you?"

Isaribi nodded, "Those people I said that I work for… they're the same people who did this to me." She rubbed the area around her cheek and neck, with her eyes shimmering in despair. "They said that if I continued working for them, they would turn me back… fix me, make me completely integrated. Until then I live like this, but even though I've moved away from the villages I grew up around for most of my life, I'm afraid to live anywhere near other people because they would still view me as someone sick and diseased… someone who can't ever be normal." Feeling a tear drop down from her eye, she reached up and brushed it away, sniffing as her hopelessness and distress started to spill over.

She couldn't remember the last time she cried. She'd always been able to hold it together and push through the abuse and loneliness in her life. Maybe it was because of the boy sitting next to her and giving her the first real company she'd experienced in a long time that she was reacting like this.

It was strange.

After a minute or so of wiping away tears and telling her own story to the stranger, the girl then realized what she had done and started to tremble.

Worrying that Naruto might scowl her and find her appearance disgusting like everybody else, Isaribi turned away and prepared for the onslaught to come. However, instead of hearing cries of outrage or the feeling of being struck down, she suddenly felt her face taken by a gentle hand and pulled back around. Surprised at the contact, Isaribi looked up to see Naruto still gazing at her curiously. When she saw his eyes glance over her and then meet her fearful ones, she then saw his steadfast gaze bring about a smile and his body shimmy even closer.

The bird on his shoulder remained still as he brushed a thumb over the girl's cheek and wiped away another tear.

"I don't see why people should be afraid of you," Naruto said softly, seeing Isaribi stare back in bewilderment. "You look perfectly normal to me."

Heart racing from shock, the teen raised her hands and laced her fingers together. When Naruto pulled away, she caught a full shot of his grinning visage before watching him sit back and take a comfortable spot alongside her. He wasn't distant or showed any signs of fear. He sat right next to her like a close friend in class, a person wanting companionship.

"If I didn't accept people for who they were and judged them based solely on appearances, I'd be a real prick," Naruto said proudly. "You'd have to tie me to a stake and smack some sense into me if I did."

Hearing this brought a twinge of a smile to Isaribi's face. "Really? You'd let them do that?"

"Yeah," Naruto exclaimed with a grin, "Maybe I'm just weird that way. I don't know. But… what I _do_ know is that treating people like they are monsters and judging them before even getting a chance to know them is bad. Stuff like that can really hurt people and make them hate the world, and that's not something I want to do to others." He beamed sincerely in her direction. "I'm not a monster… and neither are you."

Giggling a little, Isaribi stared warmly at the boy. Now that she could see he had no intent on harming her, even when presented the opportunity, she felt that she could trust him now. "What's your name?"

Enthralled at finally being asked for his name, meaning that Isaribi had finally started wanting to make a connection, the blonde saluted with his trademark appearance, "Naruto Uzumaki: part-time explorer, hammock salesman and full-time misfit!"

The mood between the two strangers became a little more pleasant once introductions had been made. For the next hour after that Naruto and Isaribi sat together, shared small talk and watched the stew cook atop the fire. Eventually the pot was ready for consuming and so they each poured themselves a bowl. Having not eaten anything for the past couple of days due to unexpected unconsciousness and delivery to another country, it was clear the jinchuriki was the most starved of the two. The owner of the shack marveled at how much he could actually eat when he began inhaling food like he was drinking water.

Eventually lunchtime came to an end and the pair ended that period sitting alongside one another, sharing tea and talking some more. Naruto wanted to know more about what Isaribi did for diving, like the stuff she caught, the places she explored, any caves or tunnels she'd found, corals and more. He did the best he could to dodge any and all questions about the people who gave her amphibious capabilities, since he wanted to keep the conversation enjoyable, which he did, much to the host's delight. They really appreciated each other's company for however long they spent in that shack.

Once all the tea was done and their stomachs were full, Naruto felt it was finally time to hit the road again. Now a lot more open and hospitable towards her guest, despite the whole breaking into her home thing, Isaribi led the lost jinchuriki out onto the beach and inland. They had to traverse some of the sands before they came to an appropriate hill to climb into the island, in which the purple haired girl spearheaded the hike forward.

Along the way up through the forest, the pair continued to chat.

"So… where is this place anyway?" Naruto asked curiously, finally tracking back to the topic which had led him to his current predicament. His initial intentions had been to find out what country he was in, but with the sudden change in circumstances which required his charming personality to assist him in resolving a noticeable plight, he'd unintentionally gone off on an extremely profound and enjoyable spiritual side-quest. Now that he'd been able to earn the trust of a person who shared a past similar to himself, securing another good win for him, he could finally get his compass back on track. "The temperature in the air is continuously fluctuating and the smells of salt and pine are very different to what I'm used to. Plus I arrived here unconscious in the back of a carrier wagon and I wasn't able to ask anyone back at port about where I'm at."

Isaribi smiled at him, "You're currently in _Nami no Kuni _(Land of Waves)_._ It's an island located south of _Hi no Kuni _(Land of Fire), not too far from the mainland."

"Hmm, I figured it was somewhere south," Naruto murmured, looking up thoughtfully while his companion Swift ruffled her feathers on his shoulder. "Wave country, huh?"

"You really have quite a sharp sense of smell," Isaribi said, getting the boy's attention again. "The _Land of Waves_ is known everywhere for its sudden temperature changes and unpredictable weather. Its thick mists are one of the nation's many natural defenses next to its coastlines and oceans. Even I find it difficult to navigate when a fog settles over the water."

"That's pretty cool." Though a bit inconvenient as well. The people must have gotten used to their skies suddenly switching from clear to soupy on a day to day basis.

"Aside from its weather, the island is also famous for the many rivers that run through it and its mangroves. The fauna and flora here are all unique, nothing like what you would find on the mainland," Isaribi also informed helpfully, pointing through the forest beside them towards a patch of strange looking trees. They were sitting high up on their roots, indicating that they were the mangroves she was talking about. "It's very peaceful here too."

"Does this country have any shinobi or hidden villages?"

"No," Isaribi shook her head. "Because it's such a small nation and has so many natural defenses, it doesn't need a shinobi village. However, it does hire shinobi from other countries should they require them."

"I see," Naruto nodded in understanding, glancing over at the girl with a warm look. "I'm assuming that's because this is an island a lot of ships pull through here?"

"Yes. Of course. But uhh…" Isaribi tilted her head down nervously, "Things around here haven't been going so good recently."

"Huh? How come?"

"Ever since some rich guy came strolling into here and bought out all the contracts from the local businesses, he's seized control of all shipping and trade in and out of the country," Isaribi informed sadly, looking back at the blonde as they continued on walking. "This island is highly depended on its trade and fishing, so it was really prosperous at one time. But now… all of the profits made by the islanders go straight to the head boss and his henchmen, and as a result the country is slowly dying."

"That's horrible," Naruto murmured, expression showing his shock and distaste at what he was hearing.

Strange. Though this whole situation seemed completely new to him and had apparently been going on for quite some time, he swore he'd heard of something very much like this before.

But where?

"Who's the bastard doing this?"

"Well… the people I work for moved from the _Land of Sea_ over to this place to take advantage of the shipping routes the man had setup in the area. Whenever any of the company's boats pass through, we attack them and raid them for everything they're worth, mostly to fund the research the people in charge of me do in their underground laboratory on this island."

"Seriously?" Naruto recoiled.

Damn it, not only did he have this monopolizing fat cat to deal with, Isaribi was also working for a rotten bunch herself. Though he could understand she was only doing this because they'd promised they would fix her condition and make her normal again, he still felt that he needed to pay whoever had her on this leash a bit of a visit.

But only after he'd dealt with this island's main problem first; _**they**_ were next on his list. Priorities you know. It was what the jinchuriki decided right then and there that he was going to take down every single bastard in this area in the order that they had been stacked for him.

"What's this business tycoon's name?"

"Everyone across the country knows him as Gato; one of the richest and most powerful shipping magnates in the world," Isaribi replied grimly, only to pause when she realized Naruto had stopped dead in his tracks. The girl looked back at him, surprised when she saw the stunned look on his face. "N-Naruto? What's wrong?"

"D-Did you say… Gato?" Naruto asked, his swallow friend chirping in shock.

"Yes. Have you met him before?"

The jinchuriki's expression tightened into the hardest of scowls Isaribi had seen on him yet, after which he then hissed dangerously, "Oh yeah." His fists clenched hard enough that it almost looked like he was about to draw blood, but thankfully he didn't go that far. "Two years ago I got into a training accident and wound up getting transported to the _Land of the Great River_, many miles away from my village. I found out that a man named Gato had built an enormous dam there, and was using his control over all the power and water stations in the region to hold the entire country hostage. Everyone living there was forced to pay him tons of money just to survive and if they didn't, Gato either chased them away or killed them." His brow furrowed at the stories he was told there and the reality of the world he'd faced. "So… now he's here?"

Looking at the expression on his face, Isaribi held her hands together tightly out of both concern and fear for how Naruto was taking this whole thing. "Gato has control over the entire island's ferrying system. That means he has direct power over what comes in and out of this island, including the people. Because there's no other way out of this place, the villagers living here are trapped unless they can make the money to pay for a flight off. But because Gato also owns all of the fishing industries, they have no way of making any money."

"It's exactly like back in Great River," Naruto stated, biting his teeth together hard and glancing at the teen. "So I have no way out of Wave until somebody takes care of Gato, right?"

"Right."

"Well then. I guess it's time for me to go have a little talk with old ferret-face," the jinchuriki stated, cracking his knuckles one after the other. Holding out his hand Swift responded immediately by jumping off of his shoulder and onto his finger. When the swallow turned to look up at him, the boy reached into his pocket and fumbled about for a moment before ripping off a piece of scroll. Pulling it out, he then bit into the tip of his finger and scribbled something with his own blood onto it. He then rolled it up and handed it to the bird, "Take this to Tayuya-chan for me. I don't think we'll be sticking with each other on this adventure, Swift-chan."

The bird chirped and nodded affirmatively, before taking the paper in foot and flying off.

Both the jinchuriki and Isaribi watched the bird disappear over the treetops, before the latter glanced back at the blonde curiously. "What did you give to her?"

"A message for my friends," Naruto stated. "I just want to let them know that I'm okay and won't be back in the village for a few days."

"Is that alright?" Isaribi asked.

The blonde stuck out his chest, "Of course. This happens to me all the time. I'm sure Tayuya-chan will understand. Now." Slamming his fist into an open palm, Naruto directed his attention towards the girl in bandages. "Where can I find this asshole's hiding place so I can give him a piece of my mind."

Stunned at his willingness to go confront the head honcho behind this country's current strife, the girl then pointed in the direction she knew where the boss was. "His mansion is up hill not too far from here." Isaribi then stepped towards the blonde. "But his place is crawling with guards and mercenaries. You won't be able to get anywhere near him."

Naruto scoffed and grinned confidently, "I've broken into tons of heavily guarded places before. I'm sure I'll be fine." Seeing the still concerned expression on the teen's face across from him, the jinchuriki approached her with a warm look and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about me, Isaribi-chan. I'm used to this kind of stuff. Besides… I have unfinished business with the bastard. I know how the guy works and what kind of company he keeps around him, so I'll be fine."

Isaribi placed a hand over his hand, "But… you're not afraid?"

"Not at all," Naruto shook his head, stepping away. "If I was, then do you think I would be here right now?" Saluting, the boy turned heel and prepared to head off. However, before he could set himself into a run, he stopped and gazed back at the purple haired teen warmly, where he met her stunned look head on. "If you ever need any help Isaribi-chan, don't be afraid to come find me, okay." When he received a nod from said girl, the jinchuriki gave another smile and took off; kicking up dust at the speed he left with.

Isaribi watched the blonde disappear into the trees, standing in place for a few moments before giving a small smile. "Be careful, Naruto."

With that said and done, she then kicked absently at the ground and started back for the beach. She did so silently, every so often looking back and wondering with hope that the kind boy she had just met would really be alright…

OOO

**Some minutes later…**

It took several minutes of hard running before Naruto finally arrived at his destination. Being a lot further out and more guarded than he originally thought the blonde made sure to duck behind the bushes to take a better look at the massive summer home that was Gato's estate here on the island.

Sitting just a hair's breadth away from the beach, the building was of castle like design with a gorgeous paint job, arches, balconies, walkways, tiled roofs with slopes, statues and a massive wall surrounding the entire property. It could have easily been mistaken for a temple or a royal fortress from a distance, which spoke wonders about how much work the boss had put into it. It also reflected how inflated the bastard's ego was, which ticked the jinchuriki off quite a bit.

The one other clue Naruto got that told him that this was Gato's main place of business was that there were types of guards marching around outside. They weren't the kind dressed in uniform or suits. They all looked like the scrubs you pulled off of the streets to harass people for money, common thugs and farmers looking for a quick buck. In any case, neither one of the dozens he was able to count looked like the socially acceptable type nor appeared friendly in any way with the large weapons they were strutting over their shoulders.

There were swaths of them patrolling the grounds and castle. Through his eagle like eyes and his senses in the ground, Naruto was able to scout out every individual sentry moving within the vicinity. To get a better view, he leapt into the trees and got a little closer, making sure to stay as invisible as possible, something he had no problems with.

After a while and seeing a break in the patrols, the jinchuriki stealthily hurdled over the wall and onto the property. Ignoring the garden and keeping to the shadows, Naruto flew up onto the second story and swiftly crawled his way across the tiles. Sticking to a dead spot, he found himself a vent and jimmied it open, deciding to make his way through the building through use of its ducts than its hallways.

Even for a single story, the place was massive. Crawling through the enclosed spaces and every so often coming across a grated exit, Naruto was given a self-tour of the establishment. On this level, there was a bathroom, toilet, living rooms, offices, storage rooms, and a couple of bedrooms, some of them reserved specifically for the common folk working under Gato. Then there was obviously the guest rooms for the unmentionables Naruto suspected the boss to have around every now and again.

Searching for a little longer, avoiding the long drops and climbs to other levels on his route, Naruto finally stumbled upon the very place he was looking for.

Finding a massive office with a huge balcony looking out over the ocean, the blonde quietly made his way through the ducts that wrapped around the chamber and began his reconnaissance. Unlike the other rooms, this office was massive, with bookshelves, filing cabinets, portraits and all sorts of other high-class stuff littering the space. It was a very posh place, and one that wasn't afraid to show off its glamour. With the number of vents this section of the floor had, it gave the hunting Naruto several different angles of the room, all of which were advantageous.

The jinchuriki scrambled around it, taking his time in getting a feel for the environment, before finding a good position on the right side of the desk facing the double-doors that was the main entryway into the office.

What's more, not only did the boy see how rich and full the chamber actually was, it wasn't empty either.

The big man himself was there.

"Would you care to repeat that for me?" the shrill voice of the impudent figure sitting behind the office's workspace rang out, his sunglasses covered eyes glaring a hole into the two right-hand minions standing before him at attention. "I don't think I heard you correctly. Did you say that that fat old bat, the bridge builder… is GONE?!"

Zori, the shorter of the two meatheads and wearing the familiar jacket and beanie, gulped deeply as he stood under the fury of his employer. "I-It's exactly what we said, boss."

"The old codger got away. We don't know how and we don't know when, but word around town says he managed to get out," the tattoo covered brute with the eye-patch standing beside Zori spoke up in continuum. "It must have been after we sent our men onto the bridge the other day to bully the workers into giving up on the project."

"The bridge builder stood up to the boys we sent and they backed down. We were going to send in more today to rough him up, but the men working there had set up a barricade and we couldn't get through," Zori added while folding his arms. "Though the villagers don't have guts like the chief, they're certainly stubborn and know how to follow orders. It was after that we heard the old man disappeared."

"Damn it!" Gato swore, slamming his fist onto the desk in frustration, causing a loud bang and rattle to ring out as he dislodged the pens from his holder. "As if I didn't have enough shit on my plate to deal with already! If the high-collar snobs I'm trying to negotiate with across the sea weren't a big enough problem, I also have that damn bridge being built across the channel and the old man in charge of it fighting against me. Shit!" Sitting back down the mogul fumed. "And now, to top it all off, he's gone. He probably ran off to find help."

"You think so?" Waraji asked.

"I know so," Gato continued, balling his fists tightly and making a gesture like he wanted to strangle something to vent his anger out on. "Grrr, if only that bastard missing nin Zabuza Momochi did what I told him to and snuffed the old guy out in his sleep, then I wouldn't be having such a big headache! What's more, he can't even catch that fucking sea creature or whatever it is attacking my boats and stealing my shipments!"

"Not to mention the guy's abandoned his old hideout, so now we don't even know where he is so we can only communicate with him on his own terms and play by his rules."

Gato grunted indignantly. "I guess you get what you paid for. I wanted to hire a strong shinobi who was not only off the registry but could take care of all of my problems and follow orders. But instead, I get someone who is useless, rebellious and can't even follow simple instructions… damaged goods." A dark smirk then crossed Gato's face, "And you know how much I hate damaged goods…"

Zori grinned at the vibe he got from those words, but then looked off to the side when he remembered some other important details regarding their asset. "As useless as he is, Zabuza is still a sharp fucker. After your last visit to his place, he must have figured you would get pissed off and would call in the hunter ninjas from _Kirigakure_ to dispose of him."

"Feh. I wouldn't be stupid enough to hire hidden village shinobi to get rid of that man. Oh no," Gato replied, sitting back in his seat with a smirk. "If I did hire registered ninja to do the job, even hunter ninja, not only would the mission be expensive as hell since I'm paying for multiple parties and service charges, but the village leaders, rival corporations as well as the daimyo from the continent would become aware of my dealings here and start taking actions against me." All village shinobi had to report to someone after all, and Gato knew more than anybody else that when a report was made to someone, word basically spread. And when word spread, more trouble was to follow. That was how it worked. "No… I have more discreet means of dealing with someone like Zabuza."

"What do you have in mind, boss?"

Naruto, smirking at hearing the talk between the three and their business with some shinobi named Zabuza they were having trouble with as well as what he suspected to be Isaribi's doing, pulled a knife from his pouch and prepared to undo the vents. After hearing all he needed to hear, the jinchuriki decided that now was as good a time as any to get to work on fixing things up on this island.

However, before the blonde could move for the first screw, he stopped in mid-reach when he suddenly picked up the distinct aura of something disgusting, dangerous and powerful approaching the office.

Freezing in shock, with eyes widening and sweat appearing on his face, Naruto silently pulled back and instantly cut towards the double doors he could see through the slits.

"_No way? What kind of person would have a presence like that?"_ Naruto thought, only to blink in disbelief when he sensed something else. _"Wait… two people?"_

Whoever the hell they were, they were getting closer.

"It's not _what_ I have in mind, Waraji," Gato exclaimed, leaning back in his seat. "It's _who_ I have in mind. Hiring official ninja would only bring me more trouble than I can handle, but… if I was to go off the books and hired somebody with a big name and a good reputation, as well as somebody who would not draw attention to my work here; I can get rid of all of my woes in a single swipe." He snapped his fingers, but then dropped it back onto his desk with a sour look on his face. "Problem is though… I got into contact with these people a few days ago. They're sure taking their sweet time getting here."

Just as Zori and Waraji glanced at each other and began questioning exactly who it was their boss could have hired the handle to the office's door suddenly shifted down before the entrance itself was pushed open. Both doors slamming against the wall had all three people in the room including their eaves-dropper look towards the hall.

When they did, the three people in the chamber froze when they saw two figures standing in the frame.

Both of them stood at around the same height above Waraji, wearing black cloaks with high collars and red cloud patterns on them. While on first glance the two intruders were dressed identical to one another, they both differed slightly due to several unique characteristics. The one standing on their right appeared unremarkable. He wore a grey hood and dark mask completely covering his face, with only his strangely colored green and red eyes showing. The other individual on their left looked slightly different. He had his collar popped open, showing off the upper parts of his chest with a necklace with a weird symbol hanging from it, and was carrying a large red scythe with three blades on it. He also had silver, slicked back hair, purple eyes and a pretty normal yet irate looking face.

The thing was though that had Naruto raise an eyebrow at was not only were the two intruders wearing headbands from _Takigakure_ and _Yugakure_ respectively, but the village symbols that represented each of them were slashed out. That was something the jinchuriki had never seen before.

"_Who the heck are these guys?"_ Naruto wondered, taking in their individual appearances. They sure dressed funny if anything else. But despite what he could make of them, the aura he could feel being emitted off of their bodies was almost choking him. He was pretty sure that they were also having the same effect on the other three men in the room. Another thing that he was pretty certain of was that these were the people Gato was talking about; the new hired guns, or so he said. The jinchuriki tensed a little at the rapidly developing situation._ "Maybe I should attack them… take them by surprise…"_

"_**Don't even think about it, kid,"**_ the voice of the Kyuubi suddenly spoke up, startling Naruto from his state of readiness._** "Just sit back and keep quiet. Don't do anything that will let them know you're here!"**_

"_Why?"_

"_**I may be stuck inside of you behind this damn gate, but I can still feel the killer intent these two are giving off. Stay the fuck away from them."**_

Hearing how worried the Kyuubi was sounding struck a chord with Naruto. If his nine tailed companion was actually speaking up and telling him not to engage someone in battle then it meant one of two things. One; the Kyuubi was doing it to keep him from getting into trouble because he cared or two; because the fox could genuinely feel how powerful these guys were and was telling the kid not to cross their path because they would kill him.

Naruto figured it was more around the latter.

If that were the case, then the jinchuriki decided to do what the fox told him and backed down.

"Why the hell did you drag me all the way down here with you?" the man with silver hair spoke up in annoyance, turning his glare onto his masked partner. "This is just another one of your fucking money lording jobs. It's just a waste of my time."

"Shut up, Hidan," the masked man shot back, not taking his eyes off of the three men in the room. "As far as I'm concerned, your entire life is wasteful." Ignoring the profound swearing from his teammate, the intimidating figure entered the room in stride, followed closely by the foul-mouthed weapon user. As they approached the desk, both Waraji and Zori broke apart and gave them some room… _plenty_ of room. "Gato I presume."

"Y-Yes," Gato gulped, adjusting the glasses over his eyes and glaring back at the pair that stopped in front of his desk. "I'm guessing you're Akatsuki?"

"Right," the masked newcomer nodded, throwing his hardest of stares at the short man behind the desk. The amount of ki the guy was emitting had the magnate trembling in his seat with a feeling that he was about to be snuffed out at any second. "Kakuzu… and that's all you're getting for introductions. Now what was so important that you had to contact our group and ask for us to come down here? I'm a busy man and I don't like to be kept waiting."

Truth was he came down here as fast as he could because he heard that it was Gato that was requesting their group's services.

Gato, as in, billion dollar business owner. Billion dollar business owner meant big checks for small jobs. Small jobs meant easy money.

That's all the information the man identified as Kakuzu needed to high-tail it from the Kumo region to get all the way down here. He could practically hear money ringing in his ears with every step that he took towards Wave.

Adjusting his specs, Gato fixed the tall assassin with as firm a stare as he could muster before getting straight down to business. He was fully aware of who he was dealing with now and could feel the man's aura blasting him in the face. He had to be careful with what he said next. "I called you two here because I have a few problems I would like for you to solve for me and I'm willing to pay you both handsomely should you succeed."

Kakuzu's eyebrow arched upwards, "You have my undivided attention."

Gato wiped his brow with a handkerchief before continuing. God this guy's voice was scary. "First and foremost, my ships are being attacked along their primary route out of the island by a 'sea monster' that I suspect is living somewhere in the general area. I want you to find out where its den is and kill it."

"Go on," Kakuzu stated, glare tightening. He was expecting more to this, since he figured the man wouldn't lead off with his biggest problem.

"Secondly, the bridge being built across the channel. The man in charge of its construction has apparently fled the island, but his family is still living here in their cozy little home on the outskirts beside the village's main lake. He has a daughter and a grandson. I want you to bring one of them to me so I can use them as a bargaining chip to scare the man out of building his bridge," Gato stated with a sly smirk. "I only need one of them."

"And?" Kakuzu asked, waiting for the last and final part of the contract the man was currently writing up with them.

"The man I originally hired to do these jobs is ducking me and refusing to follow my instructions. He's proving to be a real pain in the ass if I'm honest, so I want him gone, but I know he won't leave quietly," Gato said while lacing his fingers together on the desk in front of him. "You should know him. He's a Jonin formally of _Kirigakure_, Zabuza Momochi; also known as the _Demon of the Hidden Mist_. I want you to find him and his partners, and get rid of them."

Kakuzu paused on the info regarding the rogue ninja.

Zabuza Momochi? If he remembered correctly that was Kisame's old partner, wasn't it? He'd heard stories that all members of the _Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist_ were ridiculously strong, especially that particular one and his blue-skinned partner, who was currently shacking up with their lot. Though the masked bounty hunter was confident in his abilities to kill the man, no questions asked, there was still one bit of information he was missing.

It was also the most important bit as far as the assignments went.

"That's all well and good. Of course, my partner and I will be more than happy to solve these little problems of yours," Kakuzu began, elbowing his teammate in the stomach to stop him from making some smartass comment or words against his decision before stepping forward. "But… you seem to have dodged a rather significant detail regarding all of these jobs." He stopped just inches from the desk, close enough to have Gato lean back and nearly slide under it from how the man towered over him. "How much will you be willing to pay to have these missions completed? And be warned, your first offer may decide whether or not I take both you and your little bodyguards apart, piece by piece, and play jenga with all three of you until I'm satisfied."

The three men stiffened at his words. Neither one of them could say they'd sweated this much before in their lives, because they hadn't. They also couldn't help but stand ramrod straight wherever they were or sit as stiff as a board from what the man threatened them with.

Gato really, really, REALLY needed to be careful with what he had to say to him next.

Clearing his throat, the magnate sat back up to a more professional position and composed himself for the big number.

"I will pay you double the amount that Zabuza is worth, plus fifteen percent. You can take his body and cash it in at the nearest bounty station to collect what's on his head afterwards," Gato informed quickly, hoping this would suffice.

Kakuzu swore all five of his hearts skipped a beat at that offer and stood still for a good long minute, leaving the three men in momentary suspense. No matter how he tried to angle it, there was no denying that _that_ was a lot of money. Zabuza's bounty was high enough on its own but double, plus a percentage, AND he could cash in on the corpse after the kill? Fuck, it was like Christmas had come early.

Hidan smirked when he saw the effect his partner had over those present in the room, wanting so badly to say something but not wanting to ruin the moment of watching the commoners standing under his shadow piss themselves for just being stared at by his teammate.

After the appropriate pause was given, Kakuzu nodded, "Done." He then turned heel and moved out, strolling past his coworker who watched him leave with hands on his hips.

"So… what? Are we going to play jan-ken-fucking-po to decide which one of us goes on which assignment?" Hidan asked his partner, stopping him in his tracks. The silver haired man walked up to stand beside him and focused his glare on the side of his face, "Help me out here, Kakuzu. I'm still new to this whole partnering-up business. A little more information or even a pamphlet would be much appreciated."

"I've already decided on what jobs each of us will get," Kakuzu replied, glaring back over at his partner and in a voice loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. "I'll go hunt Zabuza and his gang. Since you're still new and just got off of probation, I'll give you the easy task. You can go get the bridge builder's family and bring them here. Remember… we only need _one_ alive."

Hidan huffed and stuck his nose away, "What fun is there in offing some widowed mother or her brat of a son?"

"I figured you'd be thrilled," Kakuzu replied, expression unchanging. "It's your hobby, isn't it? To slaughter people and offer them up as sacrifices to your imaginary friend?"

"I call blasphemy, you old money-grubbing heathen," Hidan pointed at the masked bounty hunter with a deep frown in play. "What I do is a spiritual agreement between myself and Lord Jashin. To put it to you simply: no. I'm not thrilled. Why do _you_ get the fun part and I'm left to deal with the children?" His partner got to hunt down a powerful nuke-nin and he was stuck 'babysitting' some bridge builder's family. That was grunt work.

He demanded justice.

"I'm throwing you a bone here. Be grateful that I'm at least giving you something to do and not telling you to follow me around, which I know you hate," Kakuzu stated, turning to glare ahead of him again. "After I've taken care of Zabuza and you've brought in the hostage, we'll go hunt down the sea monster."

Hidan sighed and rubbed the back of his head in exasperation. It was after a moment of thinking about it he then halfheartedly settled on his chore and smirked widely, "Fine. I'll go get the woman and kill the brat, and offer him up as another 'glorious' sacrifice to Lord Jashin." He licked his lips excitedly. "I think I'll actually enjoy cutting into the kid and watching him squirm. It should at least satisfy me for the next day or so."

"Whatever," Kakuzu replied, glancing back to glare at the three men standing behind them. He focused his attention on the magnate, who was the one who gave them their new assignments, "I'll be back for my money in a couple of days, Gato. You'd better have it ready when I return; otherwise it's open-heart surgery for everyone." He then left alongside his partner, who continued to show displeasure at the lack of fun his next mission was promising him.

Zori, Waraji and Gato, once they were certain the pair had left, melted on the spot. While the muscle swordsmen collapsed to the floor, the mogul slid down his chair, pouring sweat and looking utterly traumatized. "That was… terrifying…"

"Who were those men, boss?" Waraji asked, wiping his brow.

"Members of Akatsuki; an organization of powerful missing ninja," Gato replied, head slumping to the side in thought. "The man in the mask… I've seen his face before in the bingo book. I never thought I'd ever see him in person. He's dangerous, that one."

"Why would you hire men like that to do these jobs?" Zori asked, completely baffled by his boss's decision. It was bad enough he hired a shinobi as powerful and as dangerous as Zabuza to begin with, but then he hires somebody who seemed even more powerful and dangerous to deal with him. It didn't make any sense.

"Zabuza is a tough nut to crack. It would take a lot more than ordinary hidden village shinobi to take care of him," Gato replied, breathing a sigh. "In terms of rogue ninja, I learned that the 'Demon of the Hidden Mist' is one of the strongest out there. In order to avoid complications with the authorities and other countries, I needed both a powerful shinobi and someone not affiliated with any of the known shinobi nations to throw at him, as well as someone who could follow instructions. The Akatsuki was a safe bet. They have good results."

"But… you're going to be paying the man even more than what you promised Zabuza," Zori added.

"No one of that level of strength and skill are cheap anymore," Gato exclaimed, taking off his glasses and massaging the bridge of his nose. "At least with Akatsuki I'm guaranteed success. They'll be able to wipe my slate clean, with no questions asked and no complications. That's all I really want at this point."

With that understanding, while Zori and Waraji gathered back their senses, Naruto was left sitting in the air duct sweating up a storm.

Geez. Even though he hadn't been directly apart of the events that just took place right in front of him, that whole standoff had been damn near terrifying. Whoever those two guys were, Akatsuki members, Kakuzu, Hidan… they were intimidating as hell. Naruto never thought there was anyone out there who could match Crow in terms of appearance and presence, but these guys trumped him by miles. They were in a completely different league of their own; a fact that the Kyuubi was well aware of and was partly responsible for his decision not to engage them in the end.

Speaking of which…

"_Who were those two, furball?"_ Naruto asked, shivering slightly at the memory.

The fox inside his head murmured uneasily. _**"I don't know about the silver haired one, but from the looks of the other guy, if I remember correctly, he was the same brat that tried to kill the First Hokage all those years ago."**_

"_Wait… the First Hokage? Are you serious?"_

"_**Yeah. He crossed paths with Mito, the First's wife, whom was my jinchuriki at the time and fought with both of them,"**_ the Kyuubi stated before frowning darkly. _**"I swear to Kami that Hashirama chased that little spit-fuck away after their fight. Guess he managed to survive after all."**_

"_Okay. I'm going to venture a guess that there's a lot more to that story and why the hell someone like that is still alive and kicking,"_ Naruto thought. Was he some kind of immortal being or something? Well, whatever the hell he was, he was currently on the move, along with that other guy who wasn't afraid to swear publically at every little thing around him. Even Tayuya wasn't as brazen as that when it came to freedom of speech._ "So they're both here at Gato's request; to kill a sea monster and some guy named Zabuza…"_

"_**That's not all, brat."**_

Thinking back, Naruto then stiffened when he realized what else had been said and looked down the length of duct he'd taken to get here._ "Shit! They're going after that bridge builder's family!"_

He may have been missing some facts, like the bridge and who this family actually was, but there was no way in hell he was going to let some murderer in a black bathrobe kill a mother and child. For the first time ever, Naruto had just seen Gato issue a direct order to a hired gun to go out and off someone like their life was expendable; like it meant nothing. This was not going to sit still with Naruto as long as he was around, and therefore propelled him into action.

Without needing to be told twice, the jinchuriki began scrambling down the ducts he'd gone through as fast as humanly possible. Making barely even a sound, he darted straight for the nearest exit.

"_**Kid, calm down and think about this,"**_ the Kyuubi spoke up in a frantic voice, concerned about the wellbeing of his container and any actions he was planning to take, as it would not only affect the kid but both of them._** "The killing intent leaking off of those two did not belong to a pair of ordinary shinobi. Those guys, especially that masked one… they mean business."**_

"_I know! But I've got to do something!"_ Naruto shouted back, expression desperate and alive with effort as he flew out of the open vent he used to enter the building and began bounding towards the forest._ "I can't just stand by and watch innocent people get hurt! I'll deal with Gato later! Those two come first!"_

He didn't plan on tackling them head to head. No way. That Kakuzu person was one thing. The Kyuubi warned him to keep his distance from that one and he was going to listen, especially after learning that one little piece of history regarding his village's first leader. The other one though, even though they didn't have any idea who or what he was, if he was with that guy and able to talk so freely around him without fear of his wrath, then he also had to be freakishly strong too.

In any case, Naruto was a man of action and it was action he was going to take to stop them from whatever they had cooked up. He just needed a strategy to go with his fists and he was good to go.

This was something he thought about as his eyes locked onto the two dark figures as they exited Gato's mansion, split up, and started towards their objectives. Knowing where he needed to go next, he began shadowing Hidan well out of range…

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

* * *

**Author's Note:** And that concludes the next chapter... and all hell is about to break loose.

Playing out just as he did before on his last adventure, Naruto goes wandering and stumbles upon Isaribi's shack, yay. While he didn't exactly save her from the people she's working for yet or try to convince her that what she was doing was wrong, he did manage to get her to open up through good old-fashioned Uzumaki perseverance. He wanted to ask someone about the island he was on, and seeing how the girl acted and guessing what her situation was, he wanted to help her out. It's just in his nature to want to be friends with people, and he will stop at nothing to do so. Kind of reminds me of Kintaro Oe from Golden Boy, able to convince people to give him a job with only his words and persistence to go by... minus the sexual orientation and extreme pervertedness.

Isaribi is still working for Orochimaru, but Naruto was able to make friends with her and gain her trust.

He also stumbles upon Gato, and who does he find? Yep. You guessed it, Akatsuki.

I wrote this scenario based on a number of factors. Gato already hired Zabuza, and has a few problems to deal with. His ships are being attacked, and he's losing lots of money. He also has a bridge to deal with that will be a big threat to his operation in Wave. What's more, Zabuza, unwilling to follow his instructions, has ran off to deal with the problems himself and is leaving Gato in the dark. He won't hire another ordinary missing nin to deal with Zabuza, because Gato is afraid he might lose control of that one too and doesn't trust lone ones anymore, and he won't hire regular shinobi because they're too expensive and might expose his illegal dealings on the island. Therefore, desperate, he hires somebody more trustworthy in Akatsuki.

Shit's about to hit the fan and this is a good setup. Naruto is pointed towards the source of the problem and realizes his problems have just escalated, and now has to stop Hidan from murdering Tazuna's family.

Hope you're all looking forward to the next chapter.


	12. Breaking All the Rules

**NARUTO**

**Drifting**

_Breaking All the Rules_

**Meanwhile…**

**Down on the beach…**

It had been a very strange day for Isaribi so far and, surprisingly, it had also proven to be one of the most pleasant days she could remember. At first the morning started out like any other; with her waking up alone in her little shack on the beach, glowering scornfully at the sun and the cold air that was there to greet her. Making herself breakfast and plans for the hours ahead, she expected nothing more but displeasure to come her way, even when she went out swimming for fish, urchins and squids.

However, all of that changed when Naruto came knocking on her door.

At first she found his presence unsettling and distasteful, thinking he was nothing more than another boy from the island village coming over to throw stones and harass her. But, after forcing his way in, he showed nothing but genuine care and interest in her. It had been a perplexing experience, but even though she sat with him and left her body open to attack, he didn't take advantage of it. All he did was sit with her, make food, and talk with her, using the time they spent together to get to know her. The smiles he gave and the laughs he shared were genuine. It had been a welcome surprise for the purple haired diver.

No one had ever tried to get close to her or act friendly like that with her before. Hell, not even the people she worked for found her presence with them enjoyable, even the man who made her like this. He always treated her like an asset and sneered at her unpleasantly through his smirk. Naruto though; his smile was gentle and he wasn't afraid to be with her.

Spending that hour with him had been a really enjoyable experience, even with knowing he was a jinchuriki and him knowing she had been experimented on. When the time came they had to part ways, Isaribi could think of nothing afterwards but that boy's smile and hoped that he would be okay.

He was going after Gato directly on his turf, so there was reason to be concerned.

"_I hope he doesn't do anything reckless,"_ Isaribi thought, strolling back to her shack along the beach with a bag of clams over her shoulder. Seeing how he'd reacted to that man's name, she wondered if Naruto was really going to be alright.

Upon returning home the diver immediately shoved the clams into her freezer, making plans on removing the meat later onwards. With that done, she then went about cleaning up her place and checking on whatever stew was still left over, and stored it away for tomorrow. However, while she was moving about the shack and rearranging the rest of her belongings, a knock on the door had her look up in surprise.

Weary as always, she approached the door and leant against it. As soon as her ear came in contact with the brittle surface, a voice spoke.

"It's me, Isaribi."

Pulling away, the teen slowly unlocked the door and opened it, where she looked up to see a man in a white lab coat, purple tunic and pants, with pale hair tied into a ponytail, large nose and small iris eyes smirking down at her. The shadow he cast was eerie, but didn't affect Isaribi at all. She merely stood in place, right there in the entrance to her home, and looked back at the man with cold indifference.

"Amachi? What is it?"

The man dipped his head to her in greeting, "The envoy from Orochimaru-sama has arrived. He's here to inspect the facility and to receive a full report on our current progress."

Isaribi blinked, yet her expression remained unmoving, "Do I need to be there?"

"The visitor demands that all staff from this branch of the research division be present for a full assessment. You know how important our work is to our master. Full cooperation is to be had by all operatives, no matter how big or small they are," Amachi stated with authority in his voice. "I'm sure you understand how important our line of research is."

Looking down thoughtfully, Isaribi took a moment to contemplate on the matter before panning back up. "What about the surgery you promised me?" Her eyes furrowed as she asked him this. "You said that if I worked for you for a little while longer that you would be able to fix me. I want to go back to how I was before. I want to be able to look normal again."

"I'm nearly there, sweetheart. It's only a matter of time before the solution to your current state will reveal itself from the code and I'll be able to perform the necessary changes to make your transformations perfect," Amachi stated, giving her an assuring smile. He then stepped away and turned side-on to her door. "I promise. Now come. Kimimaro-san is waiting for us at the main hall."

Still not sold on the medical nin's progress on her situation, Isaribi nevertheless did as instructed and followed him out. Making sure her shack was locked up, she then shadowed her caretaker down the beach towards the cliffs, hands at her sides and an emotionless look on her face.

While she walked, Isaribi turned her gaze towards the island, fixing her eyes on the forests up on the highlands where a worried gleam then flashed through her eyes.

"_Naruto…"_

OOO

**Meanwhile…**

Hot on the trail of her roommate's whereabouts, Tayuya had just arrived at the main postal services district several blocks away from where she'd run into Shikamaru and Choji. Standing on one of the many buildings where processing and filing took place, the red haired kunoichi was currently crouching atop the pagoda roof line providing cover for the many carriages below, and looking down into the small hole that had been punched into it.

Running a hand over the cracked tiles, the girl raised an eyebrow at the unusual addition to the structure before dropping through it. When she landed in the parking bay below and stood up, she saw a courier ninja dressed in green uniform walking by with pad in hand checking the numbers. When he came close Tayuya waved, "Uhh… excuse me."

The employee looked up with a start, "Oh, yes? How can I help you miss?"

Tayuya pointed at the ground she was standing on, "Could you tell me what carriages have been parked in this space in the past couple of days?"

The surprised postman frowned and turned towards the girl standing in the section below the walkway, "A lot of carriages come through here every day, miss. You may need to be a little more specific."

Frowning, Tayuya then pointed towards the hole in the ceiling. "I'm guessing this wasn't here before."

Following her gesture, the courier shinobi shook his head when he looked up at the massive gap. "No. No it wasn't. We've just hired a Genin team to come fix that up tomorrow."

"Well then, do you mind telling me when the hole was made?"

"I'd… say inside the past two days?" the courier shinobi replied, slipping his clipboard under his arm as he engaged the girl in conversation. "Kazuki noticed it on his shift and reported it to the boss. We've closed this space down for the safety of the transport carriages and their goods until it's repaired."

"I need to know the last carriage that came through here the time he noticed this hole and where it was headed," Tayuya stated, placing her hands on her hips. "I think he may have had an unregistered passenger onboard."

Surprised by this statement, the courier shinobi looked up at the hole and back down at the girl a couple of times. After which he then gave an understanding nod and headed in to fetch the manifest. The red head waited patiently and surveyed the area, checking out all the other wagons and carts surrounding her before the man returned with the information several minutes later. He flipped through the sheets before stopping on the form of the day the issue of the hole in the roof arose. Reading through it quickly, he paused on the last customer number to be signed in and turned his attention back to his inquirer.

"The last carriage that came through here was a horse-drawn type being driven by a man named Kenta. He was making a delivery of mechanical parts and tools to the _Land of Waves_ for _Gato Shipping and Transport_… the worldwide company owned by billionaire magnate Gato. I'm sure you've heard of him."

Tayuya's heart skipped a beat at the mention of that name. Eyes wide in horror and panning down in shock, the girl spent the next minute in silence wondering what kind of hell Naruto was being dragged into. Whether it was by his will or not it didn't matter, the boy was still being transported there.

It quickly became apparent from the evidence here and the damage caused to the roof that her friend may have hurt himself and wound up in the back of a carriage. Though it seemed impossible, Tayuya had heard the story many times of how Naruto wound up in the _Land of the Great River_ before, so it was no stretch of her imagination to believe that the same thing may have happened to the blonde again.

She rubbed her forehead worryingly and looked away in frustration._ "Damn it, shithead. How rotten is your luck? Stuff like this doesn't just happen to normal people."_

Unfortunately, Naruto wasn't a normal person. He was a fantastic person and a magnet for trouble.

"Uh? Miss?" the courier ninja exclaimed, clearing his throat and getting the girl's attention again. "Are you okay?"

Tayuya mustered a grin and threw it at the man in all its amused glory. "Oh yeah. I'm just peachy." She then bowed to him in gratitude. "Thanks so much for your help." With that said and done, the red head then sprinted out of the loading bay and began making her way back towards her apartment, leaving a startled post-master shinobi behind.

Now that she knew what had happened and where Naruto could have possibly gone, she now knew what she had to do next.

She only hoped that with all her dawdling she wasn't too late.

OOO

**Sometime later…**

**Back in Wave…**

Inside the small house situated on a wharf beside a large inlet, a young woman with long blue hair, apron, and pink blouse with red trim could be seen standing at the kitchen sink washing dishes from today's lunch. Humming a gentle tune to herself as she carried on with her task at a leisurely pace, she paused briefly from her scrubbing of plates to look towards the hallway leading out of the dining area.

"Inari! Do you want to help me hang the laundry after I'm done here?"

Her voice echoed through the house to the other end, after which she waited patiently for a response. She didn't have to wait long.

"Sure mum. I'll be right down," the voice of a small boy on the upper floor replied.

Beaming, the woman of the house returned to her work. She blitzed through the small pile of dirty dishes and the cooking pot effortlessly. When time came that she found herself cleaning the last cup from the rack and she was about to head off to the laundry to carry on with her next task, a sudden eventuality unexpectedly tore all plans she had from that point forward down.

The sound of what she first thought to be a storm hammered against the back of her home, the woman gasping in horror and turning around just in time to see the entire section of wall on the far side of the room get cut down by an unseen force. Moments later, after the barrier at the side of the dining area collapsed to the ground to form a pile of useless timber, light from the outside world poured in to reveal a dark figure standing on the other side, flying a black cloak with red clouds on it. After stepping in through the newly made entrance, a loud thud rang out as the intruder propped his weapon against his shoulder and breathed a sigh of annoyance.

"Why the fuck does that arrogant prick Kakuzu stick me with this bullshit assignment? Ugh. When I'm through with my part, I'm going to give him a piece of my mind," Hidan's voice filled the air as he kicked aside the debris and entered the kitchen. Looking around exhaustedly, his eyes then landed on the shocked female standing beside the kitchen desk. "Alright, let's get this shit over with. Are you the bridge builder's daughter Tsunami? Please say yes…" He hoped he hadn't broken into some random person's house…

…again.

If he had, then this would be his third house today.

The woman tried to back away, but couldn't due to the counter behind her. Looking left and right, she saw there was nowhere she could run to or escape, so when she saw the intimidating man with the sickle attached to a long cable march forward and suddenly kick aside the dining table, she knew she was cornered.

Tsunami let out a cry of terror and collapsed to the ground. Seconds after her fall, a pattering of footsteps on the stairwell in the hall suddenly drew everyone's attention to the kitchen's entrance, where they saw the face of a small boy poke into view.

"Mum, what's wrong?" Inari asked, only to stop dead in his tracks when he saw the man with the massive weapon towering over his mother. Stiffening up, the adolescent looked back at the intruder with a look of pure terror.

Hidan raised an eyebrow as he gazed over his shoulder at the newcomer; a boy dressed in a yellow shirt, green suspenders and a blue and white striped hat. "Ah. So you must be the brat."

Tsunami's eyes widened even more so when she spotted her son. "Don't come! Run away, Inari!"

Hearing this had Hidan grin widely as he looked the child over, "Heh, this is perfect. Both of you are here. In that case…" Slinging the scythe off of his shoulder and slamming one of the blades into the ground, the Akatsuki member stepped back and glanced confidently between the two. "Which one of you am I going to take as a hostage?"

"_Hostage?!" _Inari began to shrink back behind the frame of the door. However, upon looking around the room and seeing what the man had done to the wall of their home, both he and his mother knew instantly that a barrier of wood and plaster wasn't going to stop that weapon of his from carving through either of them. All the youngster could do at that point was tremble and whimper in fear as he stared at the villainous figure, who began pointing between them over and over again while mumbling 'eeny, meeny, miny, moe.'

"_Oh no…"_

His finger eventually settling on the woman on the ground, Hidan's excitement soared. "So the wench wins the draw after all. That's a shame. I was really looking forward to seeing your pretty little body drawn and quartered across the wall. It would have been something of a masterpiece." Checking the woman out, the assassin then rounded slowly on the boy, murderous grin flashing into view when he saw the child was frozen with fear. "Looks like I'm going to have to settle for the offspring."

Hidan started towards the boy, dragging his triple bladed scythe across the wooden floor and carving a nice gash in its surface. As the man closed the distance between them, Inari jumped out of his state of terror and began backing away, only to stop pressed up against the wall behind him.

Seeing her son unable to move and the dangerous assailant advancing on him, Tsunami reacted instinctively. She leaned forward in panic. "Don't you dare lay a finger on him!" she shrieked, stopping Hidan in his tracks and getting him to glare back at her. "If you touch him, I'll bite my tongue and kill myself!"

Standing within the frame of the hallway entrance just feet away from his quarry, the serious looking Hidan considered the words shouted at him for a moment. Looking back at the brat, he saw the boy looking fearfully across at his mother, silently shaking his head 'no'. After a minute of silence, in which the Akatsuki member pondered deeply over his debacle, he then scoffed in amusement and nodded haughtily at the woman.

"Like I care if you go and off yourself for your son. That shit doesn't work on me," Hidan exclaimed, much to Tsunami's horror. He raised his scythe off of the floor and held it firmly in a single-handed grip. "Fuck it. If Kakuzu doesn't get paid for a third of the work then let him get pissed." It was a small time job anyway and he hadn't killed anyone in ages. He was going to savor this one.

Hidan walked closer, coming within range of the child who gazed in terror at the man as he raised his weapon to the side and held it parallel to the ground. The grin on the Akatsuki member's face became even more prominent as he envisioned the cutlets he was going to be make out of the youngster beneath him. "I'll start with removing your head from your neck and work my way down."

As Inari's eyes widened, Tsunami scrambled forwards to her feet. "STOP IT! NOOO!" she cried, seeing Hidan lift his weapon and swing.

However, just before the assassin could carve into the child, he was unexpectedly blind-sided and blasted off his feet in mid-attack by what looked like a tree slamming into him with the force of several charging elephants. With nowhere to dodge and no time to react, it was a sure hit. The huge object ripped across the kitchen with the Akatsuki member mashed against it, tearing up the floor and ceiling before flying straight out the entrance the would-be assassin had formed earlier. Hidan's exit with the airborne piece of nature punched an even bigger hole in the wooden house before he and the tree spiraled across the wharf, out over the water for a good hundred meters, before crashing into the lake in a spectacular splash.

The tower of water that rocketed into the air was like a depth charge going off, a moment that lasted for only a few seconds before settling back into the calm blue.

Stunned at seeing a massive oak, roots and all, literally take out the would-be killer, both Inari and Tsunami looked in the direction it had come from to see exactly what had happened. When they did, they were both shocked to see that their hallway as well as their beloved home had practically been sawn in half by the object that had been sent careening through it.

Not only had it exited through a wall, it had started through one at the front, plowed down the corridor, at the same time trailing tiles, rubble, and branches, and had pretty much lain everything standing in its path to the ground before taking out the antagonist in question.

The tree looked like it had been ripped out from the edge of the forest just several yards from their house. Despite all the damages and the fact that it had been a tree thrown at the man, it had still been a damn good shot.

As the two family members remained in place and questioned the lack of physical sense behind the sudden development, they were unexpectedly startled out of their reverie by an orange figure dropping down from the destroyed roof and landing between them. Standing up, the blonde haired newcomer smiled as he looked at both the mother and son, "Are you two alright?"

Tsunami, on her knees, nodded silently in response, as did Inari, only his answer came accompanied by fits of both shivers and sweats.

"Good," Naruto sighed, looking up towards the large hole he'd made in the building's wall as well as the water of the lake he could see settling in the distance. After surveying the results of his close save, the boy looked up to continue his revision of his attack, whistling when he caught a good shot of the sky peaking through the massive gap in the ceiling. "Damn! That worked out better than I thought it would. What was that, like… a hundred and fifty miles an hour? Shit. Sorry about that." He grinned down at the still gawking woman, at the same time blindly pointing up at the ruined section above him as bits of ceiling started to crumble around them. "I can fix that."

Before Tsunami could say anything in kind, she suddenly felt something small tackle her and blinked in surprise when she saw that her little Inari had gotten up from his side of the room and leapt at her in a tight hug. Feeling him begin to sob with his embrace, the mother smiled and returned it gladly as she also began to silently cry.

Naruto watched the pair reunite following the shocking conflict with a warm smile, giving them all the time they needed to regain their bearings until he saw the woman peer up at him through tear strung eyes some minutes later. Inari also looked around and across at him, both mother and child appearing relieved and grateful at his life-saving actions.

"Thank you," Tsunami murmured.

The jinchuriki grinned brightly, "That's alright. I'm just glad I was able to hit the guy before…" He then stopped, eyes widening before his head snapped sharply towards the hole where the tree had exited. An unpleasant feeling drifting through the air quickly drew Naruto's eyes over to the area of disturbance.

Confused by the startled response of their savior, both Tsunami and Inari looked in the direction he did. Staring through the hole, the two civilians also recoiled in horror and disbelief when, out on the surface of the lake around the same area the tree had landed, they saw the soaked body of Hidan pull itself up from the depths of the inlet to stand atop the gentle waves like he were standing on solid ground.

Drenched in water with blood dribbling out of the corner of his mouth, the previously submerged assassin cracked his neck as he held his scythe firmly at his side. Spitting the fluids out of his mouth, he fixed his most menacing glare on the house a hundred meters out and growled at the shocked trio he could see inside.

"That hurt, you little shit," Hidan growled, guessing that it had been the newly arrived blonde haired kid responsible for sending an oak twenty meters tall flying through the house and straight into him like an eighteen wheeler on a freeway. While that was perhaps one of the best shots anyone had ever gotten in on him in his entire career as an unkillable shinobi, the fact that it came out of nowhere made the impact even more potent then what it had been. His head was still ringing from a concussion. "Not cool. I almost drowned under that massive son of a bitch. Do you know what drowning feels like? It fucking sucks."

Tsunami and Inari's eyes were wide in fear, but not as wide as Naruto's as he gawked at the man out on the lake. "W-What the hell?" The jinchuriki just couldn't fathom it. _"_Why isn't he dead yet? I put enough power behind that tree to turn every single bone in his body into gravel." Shaking his head, the blonde glared down at his stomach. "Furball! Are you seeing this?"

The Kyuubi's mouth was also hanging open from where he was lying, _**"Seeing… still… working on believing."**_

Rolling a shoulder, Hidan lifted his head with a murderous stare locked firmly onto the family, an expression that was shortly joined by a grin. "You just used up your one freebie against me. Now I'm afraid I'm going to have the pleasure of killing all three of you one by one, starting with the blonde haired jackass who thought it was funny to drop a fucking tree on top of me!" With that threat made, he exploded from his spot and dashed across the lake towards them at…

Fucking hell. How fast was this guy?

All three of them reacted in alarm. Acting quickly, Naruto yanked back the sleeve on his right arm and threw it forward, a crack of an air gun ringing out as a cluster of sparkling fireworks were sent flying at the fast approaching figure. The silver haired assailant looked up to see the flashy projectiles converge on him before they peppered him repeatedly with stun shots. The sparkling flash bangs smashed into Hidan over and over again, staggering him back and getting the man to frantically wave his scythe around in front of him in an attempt to ward off the barrage.

To no avail. They were so small and so light; it was like trying to hit dust particles.

"Ah! What the fuck?! Gah!" Damn it. Whatever the hell these things were they stung like a bitch.

As Hidan was driven back by the shower of sparklers, Naruto flew through hand seals before aiming his right hand forward, a swirl of white smoke appearing in front of his open palm._** "Futon: Oroshi!"**_ (Wind Release: Wind Blowing Down From the Mountains) As soon as he chanted those words, the smoke in front of his palms expanded outwards at an alarming rate.

What followed was equivalent to a massive bomb going off in the form of hurricane winds and clouds of smoke, which blasted out in all directions and consumed everything in their paths. Hidan was able to look up just in time to see rings of white and grey clouds rocket into the air like a nuclear bomb exploding, before he was hit by the thick wall of smoke at ground level. The gale force winds propelling the smog at him knocked him off his feet and sent him tumbling across the water before he eventually skidded to a halt. He shielded himself with his arms as the waves of cloud and high winds crashed into him, his surroundings consumed in nothing but grey and white.

"Damn you, you little bastard!" Hidan bellowed, slicing at the clouds with his scythe and slowly carving away at it. "Don't think you can get away from me in this shit! I'll fucking hunt you down, skin you alive and wear you like a motherfucking trench coat!"

However, thanks to the massive mushroom cloud hanging in the sky and pretty much blinding the Akatsuki member in airspace that had the consistency of soup, the man would later find after fifteen minutes of chopping through the dense smoke that Naruto, Tsunami and Inari were long gone from the house.

You could say that after the last wisps of cloud dissipated on the wind and Hidan soon found himself standing in a deserted, ruined house, that he was less than jubilant at the undesired turn of events.

"FUCK!"

Yeah. Let's just go with less than jubilant.

OOO

**Half an hour later…**

Naruto could honestly say he had never sprinted that fast away from a person before in his life, because whatever happened back at that house had just been pure insanity.

At first the blonde thought he'd well and truly flattened the guy he was aiming for with that tree he sent hurling through the small home. Sure, about thirty-percent of that kill shot had been pure luck, the rest of it had been all him and the attack landed dead on. He never missed with that attack. _Never_. However, when it appeared the day had been saved and he'd taken care of one of the two mercenaries hired by Gato, he then watched as the guy he sent to the bottom of the lake pull himself out of the water like a zombie and come right back at him like the attack didn't faze him at all.

Naruto was confident enough in his abilities to know how much force he could put behind an object to kill someone. That one would have definitely greased even his sensei if it was clean and he wasn't expecting it, just like what he did to _that_ guy. He decimated boulders with trees flying at that speed. So how in the name of Davy Jones' Locker did that guy get up after his bones were practically shattered, his insides turned into a smoothie and he'd been drowned at the same time?

That just wasn't physically possible, so much so that seeing the guy come charging straight at him like a madman after bringing himself back to life nearly had Naruto shit himself. Thankfully he had the right frame of mind to make a tactical retreat instead, and what a retreat it was.

Carrying both the woman and her son over both of his shoulders, the boy flew through the trees as fast as his legs would allow. He didn't even bother looking back as he was afraid the bastard was right behind him. He continued running till he was well inside the thick of the forest and several hills over that he eventually decided to stop.

It wasn't that he was tired, oh no. Far from it. He could have kept up that pace till he did a full lap of the planet and then some. He only stopped because his passengers were telling him through use of discreet sign language that they were in serious discomfort at flying backwards through the trees at above normal speed and were about to lose it.

Coaching to a stop after checking that the coast was clear, feeling out just to make sure the man with silver hair wasn't onto them, Naruto then dropped all of them down into a clearing with a stream running through it and scattered. While the jinchuriki stood to the side and caught his breath, the mother and son he'd helped save were on their knees, panting and trying to regain their sense of balance, with the latter doing his best trying not to puke.

Apparently the shock of nearly being cut to pieces by some undead monster was too great for him to stomach.

Tsunami, sweating up a storm, looked up at the blonde glaring over his shoulder and into the woods. "W-Who was that man back there?"

The jinchuriki's gaze narrowed, "A really dangerous assassin from a group hired by Gato. He was sent to abduct one of you to be used as a bargaining chip against some… bridge builder who's causing problems for him." The blonde looked over to see the stunned expression of the blue haired woman gazing back at him. "From the look on your face I'm guessing you know who I'm talking about."

Tsunami nodded, "My father, Tazuna. He's a master architect and designer, and is the head of construction here in the _Land of Waves_. He's best known for designing and building some of the newest buildings in the main village."

This news had Naruto raise an eyebrow. "Could you tell me why the biggest tool in history I know wants to get rid of your old man?"

Crawling over to her bent over son to rest an arm around him and pull him into a tight hug when he desired comfort, Tsunami continued speaking, albeit a distraught look on her face. "Years ago, Gato came to this island and seized control of all shipping and industry here in Wave. When he took control of all the routes to and from the mainland, the entire population started to suffer. People were forced to pay huge taxes in order to conduct any business or to purchase any goods through his company. Unable to make any money, the people started to starve and the island began to fall apart."

Naruto's frown deepened as he listened to the woman talk, watching as she rocked Inari from side to side as the boy started sobbing again. He could safely say that they'd never experienced something like this. Sure they must have had run-ins with Gato's other cronies several times before, but no one like _that_ guy.

That was an experience they would rather soon forget.

"To save Wave country, my father began construction of a bridge to the mainland. If we're able to connect to the continent, trade for the people will open up again, the villagers will be freed and Gato's empire here will crumble," Tsunami stated, looking across at the boy as firmly as she could as she told him the reason why they were being targeted. "My father and his bridge is the only thing standing between the death of our nation and Gato. That monster is so intent on holding onto all of the power he has here, he will do anything to try and stop us…"

"So he's tried to fight you many times before?" Naruto asked.

Tsunami nodded affirmatively while rubbing the back of her son's head, "And it's not the first time he's tried to take a life from our family. Inari's father and my husband…" The woman hugged her son even tighter. "A man named Kaiza… he was regarded as one of the strongest men this nation has ever seen and was viewed by the entire island as its greatest hero. When Gato came in and began taking over everything, he stood up to him. Because he spoke out against him and fought against him, Gato had him arrested and executed in front of the entire village. He sacrificed himself to try and save us…" She shut her eyes as tears threatened to spill. "And he didn't give up, even to the end."

To say that story moved Naruto was an understatement. The boy looked like he had been thrown into shock, but was in fact thrown into awe by what he had been told. He gazed down at both the mother and son as they embraced on the grass, processing the tale of the person who'd fought Gato here quietly in his head. From it, Naruto could feel nothing but respect for this man and acknowledged his actions as one of the most selfless and noble he'd ever heard.

This Kaiza, whoever he was, he'd fought against Gato to protect his people and to protect his homeland. The fact that he was only one person had Naruto respect the guy even more. Hell, Tsunami didn't say anything about him being a ninja or a person capable of manipulating chakra, so Naruto assumed he was just an ordinary villager with a strong arm, a strong spirit and a good heart. That hit him deep knowing that there were ordinary people out there who would do that.

No wonder his loss came as such heartbreak to the family. He wasn't only a part of their family; he was also their idol, their village's hero, and a man the entire country looked up to.

Naruto bowed his head in understanding, "I'm sorry."

While Tsunami hugged her son to her and shed a few tears of her own, the young boy wearing the cap and suspenders looked up from the crook of his mother's collar and gazed towards their savior. When he saw the blonde looking down at him, the shaken youngster with tears streaming down his face sniffled as he gazed back into the teen's firm eyes.

"W-Who are you?"

Naruto stepped forward, hands balled at his sides, "Me?" Seeing both their eyes land on him, the jinchuriki bucked up all the confidence he could and smiled. "I'm just a stranger here to help."

"Are you… someone from the village?" Inari asked, having not seen this person before. "Where did you come from?"

"I did come from a village, but not one from this island," Naruto stated, gaze hardening. "I came here from the mainland. I'd like to tell you where exactly, but I don't think that's a good idea."

Both Tsunami and Inari looked up at him curiously, before the woman stiffened, "How did you know that Gato sent that man after us?"

Naruto scratched the side of his head anxiously, "I found out when I snuck into his mansion. I was hiding in his office and was preparing to jump him when I saw that guy and his partner enter, and listened in as Gato gave them their missions. Apparently, your grandfather isn't the only one the bastard's after. There are a couple other people on this island he wants killed."

Tsunami nodded in understanding while Inari looked up at him with wide eyes, "Y-You were trying to get Gato? To… k-kill him?"

Naruto glanced at him next, "I was going to catch him and beat him to a bloody pulp, yes." He slipped a hand into his pocket and furrowed his brow. "If he caused me any trouble then I would probably have done more than knock a few teeth out of his mouth."

"Th-Then you're not scared of him?" Inari asked, shaking and starting to look even more concerned. "How come?"

"Look, this isn't the first time I've fought against the asshole and this isn't the first time he's tried to take over a whole country," Naruto informed, looking seriously between the two. "Two years ago, Gato tried to seize control of a small country in the far west on the mainland, the_ Land of the Great River_." He raised a thumb and jabbed it into his chest, standing up to full height before the mother and son duo. "I destroyed the dam he built there and chased him out of the country. He got away before I could catch him and I haven't seen or heard anything about him for months. But now that I've found out that he's here, this time it's going to be different. I'm going to free this place from him like I did before and take him down for good!"

Tsunami and Inari were stunned, looking up at the newcomer as he glared down at them with poise. The look in his eyes and his face conveyed nothing but confidence, so it was impossible for them to tell whether he was lying or not. From what they'd seen before however, how he managed to take down that man and took off running with them like they weighed nothing, it was hard to doubt him, even if he was a kid.

"Y-You're… a shinobi?" Tsunami asked.

"Yes," Naruto said, giving them a smile.

"You're… really going to try and save us?" Inari asked, looking up at the blonde in awe. "Save us from Gato?"

"Damn right I am."

"B-But aren't you afraid of him? Of that man he sent after us?" Inari asked, still fearful of what's going to happen. "How can you stand up to someone like that?" Gato was one thing. That man was strong because of the power he had over others and the influence he possessed. That other guy though was strong for another reason. Not only that, but he was able to get back up and come after them after being crushed and drowned.

All things considered, the blonde haired boy standing before him and speaking such words of self-assurance should have been scared stiff.

But, for some strange reason, he wasn't.

Naruto smirked widely, "I may look weak and I may be just some scrappy kid, but that doesn't mean I won't fight." The blonde placed his hands on his hips as he gave the youngster his most honest gleam. "Standing on the sidelines and doing nothing is useless. It doesn't solve anything. Even if you're just one person against the entire world and there are strong people standing in your way, as long as you have something worth fighting for, then that's enough to keep you going."

Inari gazed at him silently and in wonder, earning a friendly grin from the blonde and a pat on the head.

Upon removing his hand and seeing the youngster wipe away his tears, Naruto then looked back over his shoulder with a frown in the direction they'd come. "I would have stopped Gato over an hour ago if it wasn't for those two. I needed to focus all of my attention on them, so I couldn't divide up my efforts through shadow clones. Now I just need to take you somewhere safe so that I can go after the boss without having to worry about that crazy bastard in the bathrobe finding you two."

Tsunami looked up at him with concern, "How are you going to beat him?"

"I don't know," the jinchuriki replied quickly, clenching his fists. Things were a lot simpler when people just rolled over after taking an attack as big as that last one he threw. The fact that that Hidan guy could get up after taking a blow meant to be lethal meant his job got even more complicated. "But what I do know is that guy is Jonin level. Though that massive sickle he's carrying around with him should weigh him down a bit, he's still really fast… I'm guessing just below Kakashi-sensei. I was lucky he was still tripping balls from taking that hit otherwise he would have been right on top of us." Though the mercenary didn't appear physically affected by the blow, he still had his brain rattled and waterlogged from being both hit and submerged underwater. With that in mind, he turned back to the pair beside him. "I can't take you to any of this island's villages otherwise a lot of innocent people are going to get hurt. Is there anywhere around here you guys can hide?"

Tsunami shook her head. "No. The villages are the only places I know that are safe." She then turned her head and looked through the trees, following the breaking lights coming down from the canopy. "Maybe the forest? This island is covered in mangroves."

"Yeah," Naruto replied, looking up with a skeptical expression, "But I don't know how long you'll be able to use it as cover. If that guy is as tough as he looks, he'll be able to track you down in a few hours by following your scent. We'll need to cross the rivers and traverse the swamps to lose him completely, and stay downwind from his every position." Looking down at Tsunami and her son, he saw them brace themselves as he gave them a reassuring smile. "I'll take you to the other side of the island. Not sure how long that'll take, but this place is huge. Come on."

Without hesitation, the mother and son stood up and watched closely as the boy who saved them took action. Creating a bunch of shadow clones, Naruto had a handful of them use the Henge technique to transform into Tsunami and Inari respectively. Once he was sure that their disguises were spot on, he and one of his other untransformed doppelgangers picked the pair up and took off into the woods, while the other teams broke off in completely different directions. If he played this one right, he would definitely make finding them impossible for their silver haired hunter.

This was where all his years of pulling pranks on the shinobi of his village would come into play.

The original with the family of two in tow made a break for it following a zigzag pattern towards the other side of the island. In order to make life difficult for any pursuers, Naruto charged expertly through the trickiest terrain imaginable. While ordinary shinobi would find the path he took frustrating, a person of his background went through it easily as he flew across the mangroves and the occasional rocky plateaus within the forest.

For the next forty minutes, he and his copy hiked through the dense undergrowth of the island that was Wave country, every so often checking on his progress and making tabs on the route back. Eventually the blonde slowed his pace down when they pulled across a clearing, and stopped on the very edge of the tree line with Tsunami and Inari right with him.

When they stepped into the light, they suddenly got a little surprise.

"Huh? Who's that?" Inari asked.

Naruto and Tsunami remained silent as the three of them looked out across from their spot toward the stranger they could see kneeling in the middle of the grassy open. Wearing a pink kimono robe with long dark hair and a pretty face to match her guise, the small band guessed the young girl to be a couple years older than the jinchuriki and, from the way the sun was bouncing off of her, she was honestly quite beautiful.

The person had in fact been in the process of collecting herbs from the clearing when she was interrupted from her task by the arrival of the trio. Looking up in surprise, the soft gaze of the teenager locked onto the newcomers as Naruto cautiously entered the vicinity with his cargo in tow. Basket at her side, the young girl remained quiet when the new arrivals came within comfortable speaking range of her, where both groups then stood at distance and simply stared at one another.

Sensing no hostilities or anything threatening from the villager, Naruto gave the pretty face a moment of pause before a bright smile crossed his face. He nodded politely to the teen when their stares met.

"Hello!"

Caught a bit by surprise, the teenager in pink returned the greeting. "H-Hello."

"Sorry if we surprised you," Naruto exclaimed while stepping forward, carrying Tsunami safely on his back. "I know this might sound a little strange, but do you know if there are any good places to hide around here?" Yeah, like that question wasn't suspicious at all. He was carrying a mother and child with him, so that along with his polite inquiry would definitely send a few mixed messages.

Hopefully she wouldn't take this the wrong way.

The girl blinked in confusion, "Places to hide?"

Naruto nodded, adjusting the woman he was carrying on his back as she started to slide down a little, "Yeah, like a cave, or a tree with big roots or a ravine, or something. Could you help us out?"

Tsunami poked her head around and sent a pleading look towards the young teenager, "Please. There is a very bad man chasing us and we don't have anywhere else to go."

Hearing this from the mother and looking at the blonde, his doppelganger, and the child on the clone's back who also appeared quite scared, the stranger gave the group a moment of deep consideration. Taking into account their current conditions, how scared the woman and the young boy looked, and hearing that someone was after them, it didn't take the young girl long to read her moral compass to make a decision before she rose to her feet. Taking her basket of herbs with her, the villager in the kimono smiled at them.

"I think I can help," the stranger spoke, nodding into the forest behind her, "Follow me."

Smiles appearing on their faces, Naruto set both Tsunami and Inari on their feet and dispelled his clone. Safely on the ground, the small group then followed the girl in pink into the woods. Sticking close behind her, they traversed across a flat plain of forest for the next few minutes or so, with the jinchuriki taking his time to admire the splendor of nature.

It wouldn't be until sometime later when the woods started to get a little thicker that Naruto, after making sure the mother and son duo behind them were alright, decided to approach the older girl that was so kindly helping them out. Strolling alongside her, the blonde couldn't help but see how pretty she was and show interest in the mature air she had about her person. She was definitely a lot different from Sakura's tomboyish outlook, Ino's more feminine appearance and Tayuya's all around good looks and appeal. This girl had both grace and presence; not something you would find in your everyday neighbor.

When the teen glanced across at Naruto, the jinchuriki grinned, "What's your name?"

Processing the sudden question, the girl beamed at him, "My name is Haku." She tilted her head towards the youngster, "What's your name?"

"Naruto," the blonde greeted in his usual, characteristic way, "Part-time carpet salesman and seller of fine wines."

"Carpet salesman?" Haku raised an eyebrow.

This got a sheepish smile from the boy as he scrubbed his head bashfully, "Sorry, I like adding stuff at the end of my name to make my introductions a lot flashier. Half of the stuff I end them with is all bogus anyway."

The older girl gave him a look over, "So… are you really a seller of fine wines?"

"Well… there was that one time I tried to pass myself off as one and spent half a day selling alcohol laced with laxatives to the people back in my village," Naruto chuckled, remembering the good old academy days where he got up to his usual streaks of mischief every third period of the week. "Other than that: no. Not really." He chuckled when he looked the curious girl in the eyes. "You can just call me Naruto."

Staying quiet for a moment, Haku returned his smile warmly, "I see. Well… it is very nice to meet you, Naruto-kun."

"Likewise," the blonde chirped, taking stock of the herbs she was carrying before taking the rest of her in. "That's a really beautiful kimono you're wearing, Haku-chan."

"You think so?"

"It's got a nice pattern to it, and I like the trim," the jinchuriki added without missing a beat. "The girls back in my village don't normally wear them unless there's some kind of festival on. Is it comfortable?"

"Yes. I like it very much," Haku said, gently pulling on the collar and brushing down the lengths along her legs. Since she'd been kneeling in the grass all morning it had gotten a little bit damp and dirty. A few strokes of the hand were enough to clear it. "It's light and I believe very appropriate for this kind of environment." After processing Naruto's compliments, the teen looked back up at him with a fond gaze. "Do you like the color?"

Naruto nodded enthusiastically, "It brings out your hair."

Haku giggled, "I'm glad. But… I think you may have made a bit of a mistake regarding the individual wearing it."

"Hmm?"

The teen then passed him a disarmingly gorgeous smile, "I'm a boy."

Paling momentarily, Naruto gave the teen walking next to him a long, silent stare and a good look over. Moments later, after careful examination of the older girl, he grinned back at her cheekily, "Nice try, but I know that's a lie."

"Huh?"

The blonde pointed at her slyly, "You have a good poker face, but not good enough to fool me. With all the crap that's been going on around this island, like Gato and his goons marching around everywhere, it makes sense you'd say something like that to protect yourself. Dress like a girl and say you're a boy to throw others off… that's a pretty smart play." He then tapped himself on the nose, "My senses are several times stronger than an ordinary person's, so I can tell whether a person's really a boy or a girl, even at a distance."

Wow. And here Haku was thinking that this teen had just called her out of nowhere. That was surprising. The expression she returned him was one both cool and warm, "You are indeed very sharp. Did you get special training from someone?"

"Nah. I just picked this skill up from hanging around animals for most of my life," the jinchuriki replied brightly. "That and you don't really pass that well for a guy. You're too pretty for something like that."

Haku blushed slightly and beamed back approvingly, "Thanks…"

"No problem." Naruto then looked over his shoulder at Tsunami and Inari, both of whom were walking hand-in-hand behind them at the same pace.

The youngest of the group was doing well keeping up, and was also occupying his time looking across at the pretty girl leading them through the woods. The jinchuriki saw from Inari's face that he was very intrigued and somewhat infatuated in the stranger, which brought a smile to his own.

Eventually the troop was led down into a low valley under an area of raised ground beneath some trees. There, the jinchuriki saw a small building with an arch shaped roof built directly into the cliff and camouflaged. It was quite a structure, as it wasn't made out of stuff from its surroundings but also had a lot of trees growing in the area so that it blended in. He actually had to blink a few times to refocus on it to make sure he didn't miss the damn thing. Nevertheless, following Haku down into the ditch under the shadow of the precipice and trees around it, the group was then introduced to the front entrance, which Haku opened without hesitation.

"Please," the younger teen exclaimed, gesturing them in and leading. "The person I take care of has a really short temper, so watch your step."

"Person you take care of?" Naruto asked.

"Who would that be?" Tsunami asked as they walked into the slightly lit hall and living room that was there to greet them.

The moment the family and their escort stepped into the lounge and onto the mahogany rich surface, the entrance behind them unexpectedly slammed itself shut and the lights filling the darkness dimmed sharply. At least it looked like they dimmed; an event that had Naruto freeze up and glare straight ahead of him when he unexpectedly felt a powerful presence materialize out of thin air behind him. Tsunami and Inari looked over at the boy when they noticed he'd suddenly stopped.

"W-What's wrong, Naruto?" Inari asked, only to recoil back along with his mother when, to their utter surprise, they spotted a towering figure standing behind their savior with what looked to be a massive cleaver the size of a surf board held in the man's grip, and pressed up against the jinchuriki's chin.

With much of his body cast in shadow thanks to the positioning of the light, the incredibly tall assailant glared down at the blonde haired figure pressed between him and his blade.

It had come as quite a shock to the boy on the receiving end of the weapon that he hadn't been able to sense the individual until he stepped through the door. However, it was pretty hard for Naruto to sense figures that were sitting or standing in a dead spot, but this man was big. The fact he was also lugging around such a huge weapon also had the jinchuriki question the full capabilities of this person.

He was able to mask his presence completely before getting the drop on him. This was difficult even for a Jonin level ninja to pull on him.

Who exactly was this person?

The moment everyone stopped, Haku turned around and looked up at the silhouette that was her guardian standing behind Naruto and beamed warmly.

"There you are, Zabuza-sama," Haku exclaimed brightly.

Breathing out a throaty growl, the silhouette's demonic eyes fixated on the teenager across the way, "Haku… who are these people and why did you bring them here?"

"I bumped into these three while I was looking for medicinal herbs up in the nearby forest fields," Haku said without waver or pause, glancing between both the statuette form of Naruto and the fear struck Tsunami and Inari. "They said that they were searching for a place to hide out because they were being chased by a man out for their lives. The nearest village is quite a ways from here, so I couldn't just turn a blind eye to them. They needed help."

The man grunted while continuing to hold the spiky haired blonde at sword point, "Sometimes I forget how soft and kind-hearted you can actually be." His eyes panned back down to his would-be victim. "Perhaps that's why I like you so much."

Haku gleamed warmly, "I always try my hardest for you, Zabuza-sama."

Naruto blinked, not even daring to turn his head an inch but still glancing over his shoulder into his peripheral vision, "Zabuza… as in… Zabuza Momochi?" Oh yeah. He'd heard that name before. Gato wouldn't stop throwing it around back in his office.

So this was the workman that was giving the weasel such a hard time? Damn. How lucky was he going to get today?

Hearing the kid speak had Zabuza press his massive, head-slicing cleaver further against Naruto's neck. At this point the blonde could no longer ignore the feeling of cold, hard steel rubbing against him and the smell of blood coming off of it.

"I'm flattered that a pipsqueak like you knows about me, but I think it was best for both you and your friends to have kept your mouth shut," the dark-haired, demon-eyed man stated with a sinister tone of voice. "Since you now know who I am and the location of my new hideout, I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill you, the good looking woman to your right, and that nose-wiping little runt she brought along with her."

Naruto, still as ever, looked across at Tsunami and Inari to see both of them shaking like leaves. The young boy was hugging his mother's leg and hiding behind her as best as he could, while the woman held her son's head and was glaring across at the figure wielding the blade. Using a single hand gesture to assure them that everything was going to be alright, the blonde braced himself and took a deep breath.

"You're working for a guy named Gato, right?" Naruto asked, glancing over at Haku to see the teen also pass him a serious gaze. "Both of you?"

Zabuza raised an eyebrow, "Yes. We're currently under contract with him. But I don't see how this has anything to do with you being…"

"Actually, it does," Naruto interrupted, turning his head ever so slightly to glare up at the person holding him at mercy. "Look, you probably wouldn't want to listen to what I have to say. After all, I'm just some no-name, blonde haired street punk that just happened to wander in here by accident with a single mother and her son in tow. We're probably just a couple of flies to you; pests that can be dealt with in a single blow. But before you go on and do something irrational to both me and my friends, you'll want to hear what I have to say to you." He said this with both sincerity and seriousness.

After all, _**all**_ of their lives were at stake here, not just Tsunami and Inari's.

Glaring down at the kid, Zabuza saw that the boy was looking back at him with an unmoving form and sharp blue eyes that cut through the shadows like blades. While the position he was currently in would have normally struck terror into the hearts of other men far more experienced and older then he was, for some reason the swordsman could see no fear in this child's gaze. He was completely devoid of the emotion, as if being held at sword-point and threatened with death didn't faze him.

This unwavering glare and unshaken expression in the face of impending doom actually drew a tiny amount of respect from the missing ninja from _Kirigakure_. Sure, he may be just a pint-sized twerp, but Zabuza could see that the kid had balls. Even with killing intent in the air the blonde was unshaken.

Lowering the sword a touch, Zabuza nodded to the kid. "Go on."

Naruto furrowed his brow at the man, "I won't beat around the bush. Gato has put a hit out on you."

This little bit of news had the swordsman and Haku visibly blink in surprise.

"What?" the Jonin exclaimed.

"I broke into his mansion," Naruto stated, his gaze tightening as the intensity of the atmosphere grew around him. He wasn't going to leave these two in suspense. No. This wasn't the time to play games. If there was anyone on this island who could possibly help him, Tsunami and Inari, it was _this_ person. "While I was there, I overheard Gato making plans with some of his men to use the bridge builder Tazuna's family as a bargaining chip to blackmail him out of his project, and to kill both the sea monster terrorizing his shipping lanes AND you." He turned his body side on so he could better glare up at the Jonin. "To accomplish these goals, he's hired two incredibly powerful men from the mainland. One of them is hunting you right now. The other one was sent to the bridge builder's home, where he tried to capture and kill his daughter and grandson." Naruto nodded toward the two standing close by. "Them."

Zabuza, eyes showing his alarmed response at the sudden news, held his sword back up against the boy beneath him. "I had an agreement with Gato. That old man and that sea creature were supposed to be _my_ marks. I was going to take care of them myself."

"He said you weren't doing your job fast enough," Naruto stated, turning around fully to face the swordsman. Now that he could see him clearly, the blonde saw that the man stood to about Kakashi's height. He also had on black pants, a vest with a strap for his sword, blue arm and leg warmers, white gauze wrapped around his face so that only his eyes were exposed, and his Kirigakure headband worn lopsided on his head. On top of that, he also had black spiky hair and sharp eyes, with irises he'd expect from a man like him. His presence was incredible after all. "He got frustrated that you weren't following his instructions and that you were taking things too slowly, so he called somebody else in to do the missions for you… and to kill you off in the process."

Fixing his startled glare on the kid's unbroken stare, the man then glanced up towards the woman and her son when the former spoke up with a stammer. "I-It's true," Tsunami exclaimed, holding her son closer to her when she saw the swordsman's eyes fall on her. "The man Gato hired broke into our home… a-and Naruto-kun saved us from him. We ran from there… and stumbled upon this young girl working in the forest."

Zabuza's eyes then cut to Haku, where he saw the girl nod back in confirmation. After that, he panned back to Naruto, who was keeping his distance with the assassin and still staring at him.

Considering the situation now that he was presented with all of this information and evidence, Zabuza clenched both his teeth and his fists angrily. The grip around his sword tightened so much that the sound of the pressure building on its handle echoed throughout the living room. Upon processing the facts quickly and thoroughly, and going over them several times, the Jonin then lowered his blade and stepped back; giving the boy he had been holding at sword point some breathing room.

Zabuza focused solely on his target once again, "Do you know who Gato hired to take me out?" He held up his sword and pointed it down at the boy with the curved tip. It wasn't in a threatening way, but he still wanted the boy to be quick on the trigger and to spare him the details. "You said you were there when he met with them, and I just happen to know every single shinobi in the bingo book to date; dead or alive. Even Gato should know that it would take more than worthless cannon fodder to get rid of me. What are their names?"

Naruto nodded, retaining his state of attention, "You might know these two. Both of them are wearing black cloaks with red clouds on them. The one that went after Tazuna's family was a man with silver hair and was carrying a red sickle with three blades on it. His name is Hidan."

The swordsman nodded at hearing this, "Hidan from _Yugakure_. Yeah… I've heard of him. Not too long ago he got into a fight with his village when he learned that its shinobi were transforming it into a place for tourists and were becoming a neutral territory amongst the other nations, so he no longer had to go on missions that required fighting or assassination. He slaughtered his platoon and ditched them to become a vagrant." Zabuza looked back at the kid again after that. "What about the other one?"

"He's your biggest problem," Naruto stated seriously, his body stiffening. "He's a man wearing a mask and has really freaky eyes. I didn't get a good look at his face, but I saw that he had a _Takigakure_ headband on his head and heard his name was Kakuzu."

At that, everyone in the room saw Zabuza freeze up and his muscles tighten. Sword trembling, the Jonin gave Naruto a momentary wide-eyed stare before his eyebrows crossed. "Kakuzu? Are you sure?" Seeing the boy nod only confirmed the man's fears. "Okay… him I _definitely_ know. He's a bounty hunter formerly of _Takigakure_, one who only goes after the criminals with the highest prices on their heads."

The amount of tension Naruto felt from the man had him worry about his own safety, but thankfully Zabuza set his sword's blade down and turned his attention elsewhere.

The swordsman glared off to the side contemplatively. "If he's really here, then that's a big problem. As much as I would like to face that guy myself, I'd prefer not to take him on directly. His abilities are on a completely different level than mine." He looked back at the kid, remembering one other detail. "You said the two of them were wearing black clothing with red clouds on them, right?" He saw Naruto nod again, confirming his suspicions. "That's the symbol of the Akatsuki organization."

"Who are they, Zabuza-sama?" Haku asked in concern.

"A group made up of the most powerful S-Rank nuke-nin in the world. They're practically the bogeymen of shinobi and the most dangerous individuals you're likely to come across," the swordsman informed, sheathing his sword on his back and lowering his hands to his sides. "Last I heard, my old partner from the _Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist_, Kisame Hoshigaki, joined up with them. It's a really exclusive club that only allows a handful of people to join; most notably people who've made a name for themselves and are exceedingly strong. Your best guess is as good as mine as to what exactly goes on between them." He looked back down at Naruto to see the boy step back a few. "But knowing this doesn't make our situation less complicated. If Gato went out of his way to actually call in two of these guys to take care of me, then he must really want me gone. Those fuckers don't play around and they certainly don't fail. Even against one of them I'd have a seriously tough time."

"So… does this mean… you'll help us?" Naruto asked hopefully, with Tsunami and Inari sharing the same feeling of anticipation.

After a moment of pause, Zabuza nodded. "Sure. I'll help you, kid." After seeing the youngster breathe a sigh of relief, the swordsman smirked. "If it was up to me alone, I would've killed you the moment you walked through that door. But thanks to you and the fact that Haku saw fit to bring you here herself…" He pointed over to the abovementioned individual before then gesturing to the blonde, who continued gazing at him. "You just saved your life."

Naruto chuckled nervously with sweat dripping down his head. _"So it was just luck then, huh? Heh…"_

Damn, how many close calls was he going to have today? He nearly got his head lopped off by a blade that was twice his height in length!

Zabuza shrugged off the smile thrown at him by the jinchuriki after his uneasy laugh. "Since you said that someone else has taken on the contract and has also labeled me as a target, it means I don't have a reason to go through with my plans to kill the bridge builder anymore." He looked across at the mother and son standing off to the side. "Consider my deal with Gato over."

Relief fell upon Tsunami and Inari, with Naruto and Haku sharing pleased gazes with one another.

"You two can spend the night here. Our hideout is way out of reach of the village and is hidden well underneath this cliff. Even those guys hunting you down won't be able to find this place for a few days," the rogue nin stated, moving around the living room floor and gesturing towards his student standing and waiting patiently on the side. "I'm going out to do some scouting to make sure your story holds up. If you need anything, Haku can get it for you."

Sure, Zabuza accepted Naruto's story at face value to keep him and the family alive. Having been a Jonin for quite some time now, he'd learned many years ago to find out as much about a situation as possible before deciding on a course of action to take. He didn't operate outside of reason and didn't proceed with a task unless he had all the facts. He was a cautious man after all.

For this reason, next to Naruto's quick words and the fact that Haku had led the newcomers here, wanting to make sure the guys Gato supposedly hired were the genuine article, Zabuza opted to go out and look for them to make certain for himself that the boy's story was true.

The swordsman left the room after that, heading off to some other part of the underground domicile to go about his next intention.

While Tsunami tended to her son, wiping his face off with her apron, the teenager in pink approached them and gave each of them a courteous bow. "Forgive him. Zabuza-sama doesn't receive that many guests… only clients. He can be… a little harsh sometimes."

The mother beamed, "Don't worry. I'm used to dealing with his kind. He's just a little… impatient, that's all."

Haku giggled at that. "He is a little rough around the edges. Everybody is. But Zabuza-sama is a really good man and has a strong spirit." She then gestured the pair to the couch. "Have a seat. I'll get you something warm to drink."

As Tsunami led Inari over to the chairs, Naruto strolled over to Haku and smiled at the girl when she turned to face him. Rubbing his shoulder uneasily, he spared her a warm look. "Thanks for this."

"No problem."

Breathing out the chill the ran up his spine, the jinchuriki gave a good-natured laugh as he steadied himself before the older teen, "That was pretty… intense."

"Not many people can face Zabuza-sama and speak so freely with him without being overcome by his presence," Haku exclaimed brightly, giving the boy a more admiring gaze. "I must say, you're a really incredible person."

"You think so?" Naruto exclaimed, flashing her one of his sheepish looks, "A lot of people have been saying that to me lately."

"I can imagine," Haku said, watching Tsunami and Inari get comfortable before pointing at one of the doors. "I'll go prepare some tea for all of you. Please, make yourself at home."

"Will do."

Well… not a bad way to make a few new friends.

Today was turning out to be a really busy time for the troublesome jinchuriki, something that had him pondering over as he went over to the window looking out towards the forest and sat himself under the sunlight. Breathing out and resting back, the boy's thoughts then rested on the problems he was now expected to face and the trials that lay ahead of him.

Sure, they were safe for the time being, but they still had a great hurdle that needed to be overcome.

He wasn't only concerned about how Isaribi was doing, Naruto's worries were also rested on those two assassins, one of which he had pissed off and was now hunting him down…

OOO

**Meanwhile…**

**Back in Konohagakure…**

Hurriedly scrambling about her room, Tayuya snatched up all of the shinobi gear she could see lying around as she prepared herself to head off on her next mission. The main difference about this one though, was that it wasn't an official assignment.

In fact, it was more like a rescue operation.

After finding out where Naruto had gone and figuring out what must have happened to him, the red head soon found herself in full preparation mode as she was determined to go out, help him, and bring him back to the village. In spite of the high amount of faith she had in her best friend and his abilities, she still cherished his life and safety above all that.

Though she was well aware that the boy had been in this situation before, years ago when he first met her, he'd also made an enemy out of Gato then. The fact that he was possibly being hauled away by someone working for the magnate's company made the situation a lot more harrowing, as there was a chance that he was in some serious trouble. It was because of this, Tayuya was compelled to go out and get him back.

Even the blonde haired wonder wasn't impervious to procedure. Hell, he could be locked up in prison and was being tortured by Gato's goons right now for all she knew.

"_I know that bastard Gato has it out for Naruto-kun,"_ Tayuya thought as she strapped her flute to her leg holster and adjusted her head band. _"There's no way in hell a man like him would let that Great River fiasco slide. If Naruto-kun has wound up in his territory and they've got notices from the weasel to look out for him, then he won't be getting out of that area quietly. I __**have**__ to go find him." _Naruto would do the same thing for her, no questions asked.

Tayuya was determined to follow his example.

However, once she had all her gear on her and was just about to leave the room, the kunoichi suddenly heard a rapping on the window and turned around. When her eyes fixed on the panes, she got quite a surprise when she saw a little bird sitting out on the sill and holding a folded up piece of paper in her foot. It wasn't any random bird either.

"Swift?" Rushing over, Tayuya quickly pulled the window open and watched the bird hop inside, "You're here? Where's Naruto?"

Chirping, the bird held out the paper she was carrying, which Tayuya took without hesitation. Unfolding it, the red head took a moment to read the hurriedly written message that was inscribed upon it.

'_Stuck in Wave. I'm fine. Be back in a few days. -Naruto.'_ Hell, he even drew a smiley face at the end.

Blinking as she stared down at the message, the kunoichi processed the few words on the paper before a smirk crossed her face. She then scrunched up the section of scroll she had spread between her fingers and placed a hand on her forehead. "That bonehead. So he wants to take care of everything over there himself?" Chuckling for a few seconds, while at the same time being watched by an ever curious swallow sitting on her window, Tayuya looked back up with a wide grin and a flash of fire in her eyes. "Why does he get to have all the fun?"

With no time to waste, a now excited Tayuya leapt up onto the window sill and looked out across the village. Though she knew from Naruto's message that he was fine, she still wanted to get to him, even if it meant breaking a few rules. "Come on, Swift!"

The fire-breasted swallow chirped and flew out the window, at the same time Tayuya jumped out and onto the roof beyond. Upon landing, the kunoichi sprinted across the village towards Konoha's nearest exit, all compasses set on the _Land of Waves_.

Even though she didn't have a mission or scroll on her, the girl just barreled past the gate and left the village in her dust. She was going to be out of town for a bit, something she was certain would take up a few days and leave her team wondering where she'd gone.

Thank goodness she remembered to leave a note on her front door telling everyone that both she and Naruto were 'on vacation.'

OOO

**Meanwhile…**

**Back at Wave…**

"Skinning that brat alive may not be enough for me," the growl of an incredibly pissed Hidan echoed throughout the woods. "When I catch him, I'm going to tie him to a tree and rip out each of his fingernails one at a time. Then I'm going to slash out his eyeballs and piss on them to keep him from passing out. After that I'll unfurl his insides and use his blood to paint a God damn house!" With every step he took, he used his triple-bladed scythe to slice through vine and bush that stood in his way, a process he hoped would help quell his frustrations.

Unfortunately, it wasn't working out as well as he had hoped it would. However, it did help him express his anger in the most physical and active way possible. He'd lost the kids trail a few hundred meters back and was now reduced to searching every possible route he and the family of two could have taken. It was grinding his gears something fierce too because he couldn't even pick up the faintest trace of the kid at all.

He was like a damn animal. How the hell was he able to eliminate his scent so thoroughly to prevent predators from following after him? Not even Chunin level ninja were that good.

Still, this didn't stop Hidan from raging all over the forest. Swearing he'll catch up with the brat sooner or later, he plowed across the wood covered terrain at a furious pace, slashing through everything he came across while thinking up every possible way of taking his anger out on the blonde haired runt that had practically drowned him.

"Now all I need to do is find some poor motherfucker around here who wants his house painted red and do it," Hidan growled, still thinking up on how he was going to open the youngster up and torment him in the goriest ways imaginable. "I'll use his hair as a brush and his skull as a bucket. Oh, that's brilliant! My best idea yet!" He licked his lips excitedly at the prospects of vengeance.

At this point he was able to calm down enough to focus all of his rage on the blonde and think more about the assignment he'd been given by his partner.

While his initial intentions had been to kill the bridge builder's grand kid and let the woman drop dead if she wanted to kill herself, now he figured he should probably just do the job he was given and bring one of them back with him to Gato's place.

All he had to do was chop off their legs so that they wouldn't run away. At least then he would not only complete the job but get a decent amount of satisfaction from doing it. He would also be able to keep Kakuzu happy. As long as the masked bastard got all the money he was promised then he wouldn't rage on him.

"I get enough of his abuse daily as it is," Hidan grumbled as he continued to traverse the lifeless forests for his prey. Ever since he joined up with Akatsuki two months ago, it had been attempted murder after murder from his partner daily. What a lousy teammate.

Unknown to the mercenary however, looking through the brush a ways out from under the shadow of a large oak, a tall figure stood concealed and silent as he watched the sickle wielder move through the woods. Peering around from behind the wide trunk, Zabuza's eyes narrowed as he got a good look at the person clear cutting the forest.

In all good conscience, on this island it should have taken the swordsman ages to find the Akatsuki guy Naruto claimed was after him and the bridge builder's family. But thanks to all the noise the jackass was making, he'd been led straight to him. The guy wasn't very bright if he thought that swearing profusely and slicing up a forest was the best way to hunt someone down.

After sizing up the individual in black and getting a shot at his face, the Jonin nodded to himself when he was able to confirm he matched the description of the person chasing after Tazuna's family.

"_The brat was telling the truth after all,"_ Zabuza thought, pulling himself back and murmuring uneasily. Since he was now able to ascertain that that blonde haired kid's story was genuine, it meant that their problems were also genuine and that all of them were in serious trouble.

He needed to head back and formulate a strategy.

With confirmation safely in hand, Zabuza took off into the trees.

Glancing over his shoulder momentarily when he thought he heard something, Hidan frowned before going back to his hunt.

"_Hopefully that asshole Kakuzu is having as much trouble finding that Zabuza as I am with these fucking brats…"_

OOO

**Later that evening…**

Deep within the woods covering the land making up the small island nation, there stood a massive tree house situated high up in a large redwood. The lights inside the towering structure could be seen from the forest floor, which would have anyone passing by the area, believe it was occupied.

However, it was there in the main room where all the residents of the building would gather in conference that carnage had unexpectedly been brought to the floor.

The place once served as the main headquarters and home for Zabuza's band of rogue ninja, including the head honcho Zabuza himself. Having been on the run from _Kirigakure's_ Hunter Nin for so many years now, the man eventually chose to settle down on the quaint little island country not too far from the mainland. Placing his group as close as possible to the continent as well as the _Land of Fire_, which was essentially _Konohagakure_ territory, the swordsman had hoped he would be able to stay well out of reach of the Hunter Nin's noses. For the past several months since constructing the tree house domicile its positioning and isolation had worked like a charm.

However, thanks to his most recent dealing involving the world renowned company owner Gato of _Gato Shipping and Trade_, the secret location of his hideout became compromised. After successfully gaining an audience with the assassin in order to discuss the terms of their agreement as well as the many specifications of his missions to follow, the shipping magnate and his men not only became privy to the swordsman's home, but also the few henchmen he had working under his wing. When their relationship started to go south thanks to several failed attempts to kill the sea monster attacking Gato's shipping, Zabuza became suspicious that his client would attempt to take him out of the picture and hence, moved his home and himself to another location.

In doing so, he left his old hideout in the hands of the men he'd brought along with him when he fled _Kirigakure_. This group, small in comparison to other rogue bands, included the infamous duo known as the _Demon Brothers_, a pair of Chunin level shinobi who fought in tandem with one another to brutally and swiftly bring down their targets.

Since being handed the key to this place, the _Demon Brothers_ had lived in the small amount of luxury that Zabuza once enjoyed for some weeks now. As a result, not only were they the ones charged with the responsibility to deal with any of Gato's men should they come knocking on 'Zabuza's' front door, they were also given the task of greeting any and all troublemakers that came around to mess with them. Initially, they had no problems with this, as the two of them were confident enough that they and the rest of their comrades would be able to deal with whoever came through that door.

Now… not so much…

That evening, while enjoying some drinks and light snacks over a game of mahjong; the group was suddenly interrupted from their free time by a knock on the door. The moment they went over to open it, the greeter was swiftly cut down by a man with a hand made out of steel and flying a black cloak with red clouds on it. Within seconds, every single individual in the home was swiftly and brutally massacred by the lone figure that left a trail of blood and entrails in his wake.

Neither one of the residents stood a chance…

"Well that was annoying," Kakuzu exclaimed flippantly as he casually tossed aside the breathing apparatus that he had managed to rip off of one of the _Demon Brothers_ when they came at him, chains flailing. After blocking their simultaneous attacks, he'd promptly disposed of both of them by shoving his hand through their chests and leaving them to bleed out over the floor. Since their bodies were still intact, the assassin was positive he would be able to claim the bounties on their heads once his assignments to this country were over. "And an easy eight million in the bank as well."

Stepping over the corpses littering the room, Kakuzu began searching the premises for other signs of life. After investigating the various levels and combing through the many rooms of the structure, the hunter eventually returned to the gore covered lounge with nothing but an idea of what living here had been like for the poor saps he'd just killed. Being Kiri Nin on the run, they'd been feeding off of the bare minimum, and they were careful to eliminate any and all information pertaining to the actual locations any of their other members were.

Apparently the way they communicated with each other was through word of mouth. That was smart, but also typical for criminals hiding from the authorities.

"Perhaps I should've left one of them alive," Kakuzu thought, looking around at all the bodies lying about the place. If he did then maybe he would've been able to interrogate one of them and gotten information on Zabuza's current location.

Unfortunately, they had all come at him at once, so he had been forced to eliminate them with extreme prejudice before he even had time to think ahead.

Breathing out a sigh, the bounty hunter then went and collected the bodies of the _Demon Brothers_. Unfurling a scroll, he laid their lifeless forms across it and quickly sealed them, before rolling the length of paper up and pocketing it. Since there wasn't a bounty station on this island, he would have to wait until his mission here was completed before going to one on the way back to _Kumogakure_. Hopefully by then he would have a few million more to add to it, not just from his assignments under Gato, but with Zabuza's head in his collection.

"_My guess is that the swordsman has positioned himself on the edge of the island,"_ Kakuzu thought. Sure, he was playing on a hunch, but with no leads to go by he needed to start somewhere.

If these rogue _Kirigakure_ shinobi were here, then their boss was still in the area too. He knew this because Gato was still in contact with the scum and, as a leader; he wouldn't have just left all of his cronies here on their own to fend for themselves. No, these guys were still taking orders.

Well… had been.

"Maybe I can follow up on the sea monster case while I'm at it," the Akatsuki member added before leaving the lounge room and, by extension, the tree house itself.

Remembering to switch off the lights before leaving, Kakuzu shut the door behind him, forgetting about the half-a-dozen other bodies he'd left strewn all about the place and staining the walls…

OOO

**That night…**

It was late and by this time the sun was long gone beneath the horizon where it had set.

Looking across the living room towards the couch, Naruto saw that Inari was fast asleep and curled up against one of its many pillows. After the trying day they'd all shared, he wasn't surprised to see the boy was out like a light and resting so soundly. The jinchuriki figured that with everything that had happened he'd be way more anxious than this, but seeing as that he was still young, his body just couldn't take the strain of so much on his shoulders and just nodded off on his own accord.

Still, relieved to see that the kid was doing okay, the blonde decided to go for a small walk around the underground home, starting down the main corridor for the other rooms. Maybe while he was searching he'd be able to find a bathroom, since he was covered in sand, salt and sweat from his morning frolicking in the ocean and cleaning house with that Hidan character.

Passing the kitchen, he found Tsunami occupying herself at the table there with tea and reading. Assured that she was okay too and wasn't panicking in any form, Naruto moved on to the next room. He found a storage section with food, which he figured would be directly across from the kitchen, and a weapons room next to that. There was a small assortment of shuriken, kunai and senbon there. Picking up a ball and chain, Naruto twirled it around some before putting it back, not wanting to pilfer from an ally and potential friend's place of residence without their permission.

Moving further down, Naruto found a couple of shoji doors standing in place. Picking between the few that were there, he chose the one closest to him on the right and slid it open. Looking in, without even knocking to start with, the boy received his second biggest shock for the day when he saw that Haku was kneeling beside her bed changing into a more comfortable robe.

How the heck was he supposed to know she wasn't wearing a bra under that?

She had her kimono half on, except that her top half was bare and was in the process of slipping it on. Naruto was thankful he could only see her back otherwise he would have caught her front flush and full-on when she turned side-on and looked over at the door when she sensed someone looking in.

The teen gasped at the sight of the jinchuriki while the blonde freaked out, spinning around so that he was hiding behind the partially open door. "S-Sorry, Haku-chan! I didn't know you were in there!"

Silence filled the corridor as Naruto stood frozen in place like a statue and waiting for the inevitable beating that was sure to come. Since he shared his apartment with Tayuya-chan and he almost, always ended up walking in on her while she was in the process of getting dressed, which almost results in him getting beaten up or stuck with kunai, he was sure to expect a similar response here. However, after a full minute of silence and nothing, he blinked away his stupor and looked around.

He jumped when he saw Haku standing directly beside him, sliding the door open a little bit more to look down at him. "What's wrong, Naruto-kun?"

Looking the older girl over, the jinchuriki was relieved to see she was fully dressed this time and sighed. "N-Nothing. I just thought… you know…" He pressed his fingers together, "Seeing you like that… I figured you were going to beat me up or something."

The older girl smiled pleasantly at him, "Why would I want to do that? It was just an accident." She pushed the door open fully and stepped aside. "It would be awfully callous of me to beat you up over such a trivial thing." Her hand was held out towards the table sitting beside her bed. "Will you join me?"

"Uhh… s-sure," a still weary Naruto chirped before following the teen in. He didn't want to intrude if she was still in the middle of something, but if he was being invited then what harm was there in accepting? He wanted to chat with her anyway, so this pretty much eliminated the need to ask.

Sitting down on either side of the desk, the pair got comfortable before fixing their attention across the way. It was then Naruto noticed Haku was having tea as well, and poured each of them a glass before moving one over to him. The jinchuriki accepted it with a grateful nod.

"I would like to get to know you a little better, Naruto-kun," Haku exclaimed, looking across at her guest as he drank. "You seem like a very interesting person; someone who possesses both a strong heart and mind."

Naruto beamed, "Really?"

Haku nodded affirmatively, "When you appeared to me in the woods with Tsunami-san and Inari-kun, you appeared to me as a stranger. At first I didn't know what to think, but hearing your plights and woes, I acted on the first thought I believed was right. While we walked, we spoke with one another, and I learned your name and that you were an incredibly sharp person who spoke kindly of others. It was that aspect about you that made me more curious about you, which is why I wish to share some tea with you and learn more about you."

"So that's it? You want to spend some quality time with me?" Naruto asked with a relieved grin. "I don't see why not. Okay."

Taking a sip from her tea, the girl in the white kimono then beamed across at the child when she saw him waiting patiently for her first question. Since she was the one who suggested this conference, it made sense that she be the one to start things off, which she did without complaint. "Where did you learn your ninjutsu skills? The doppelganger that you used to carry Inari-kun to my field was a solid one, which told me that it was a type of clone that was produced using a tangible element. But when it dispelled, it dispelled into smoke, which led me to believe that it was a shadow clone composed entirely of your own chakra. That's a skill that's not very easy to learn."

"Oh. That sounds like fishing to me," Naruto exclaimed, raising an eyebrow in feigned suspicion. "You want to know where I learned my tricks."

Haku giggled at that, "Your abilities fascinate me, Naruto-kun."

"Let's just say that I can't exactly tell you where I learned my abilities. If I did, then you and Zabuza wouldn't trust me as well as you do now, seeing as that you're both rogue ninja. Well… one of you, anyway," Naruto replied before giving the girl a more serious stare. "Also, if I was to reveal that sort of information, it would also mean betraying my friends."

"Your… friends?"

Naruto nodded, "The friends I have back in my village. If I was to say something needless or revealing, then I would be putting their lives at risk. That's not something I want to do." He folded his arms and leaned back. "One of my main goals in life is to protect my friends, and that also means protecting my home. After all, they're the things that matter most to me."

"I see," Haku murmured, finding her spirit lift at this as she took up her tea again, "Very well then. I will reframe from interrogating you on the matter."

Naruto grinned, "I will say this though; a lot of the skills that I know, I learned myself." Seeing Haku's eyes lock onto him again garnished more of an explanation from the jinchuriki when he saw her raise an eyebrow in inquiry. "I'm not a genius or anything like that. I just picked up what I know from where I grew up." He held up his tea and looked down at its contents. "When I was younger and didn't have anyone waiting for me at home, I wandered the streets on my own. I was alone for a long time and people didn't want anything to do with me, so I decided to make use of my time and get people to recognize my existence however I could. On the streets, I learned how to fight and fend for myself. I didn't have much money to live on as well, so I lived off of the food in the forest. I also learned how to sense the world around me and how to move from the animals that lived there, which gave me my strength and agility."

"So you grew up and learned how to survive all on your own, with no one to help you?" Haku asked, leaning forward in interest. "Your abilities were all self-taught?"

"Yep," Naruto nodded, holding up his tea.

Haku, looking down at the table, rolled her cup between her hands, "I grew up in the same way." Feeling the blonde's gaze fix on her curiously, the teen turned to face him. When she did, she faced his expression with a harder one. "Back in _Kirigakure_, before I met Zabuza-sama, I had a family of my own, a father and mother. My father was a normal farmer, but my mother… she came from a clan with a kekkei genkai."

"Kekkei Genkai?" Naruto parroted, testing the word out a bit before remembering what that was. "That's an ability inherited by blood, isn't it?"

The girl nodded. "Back in those days, those who possessed kekkei genkai were feared and hated by the people, due to the tumultuous periods of war that plagued the country before that. My mother concealed her heritage from my father, hoping we would live together in peace. But when I found out about my abilities, and my father witnessed me using them, he killed my mother, and tried to kill me." Haku's body tensed at that memory. "I defended myself and killed my father… and fled. I was left all alone after that. I wandered the streets, unwanted by everyone, and scavenged for food however I could." She then looked back up from her tea and smiled. "After living on the streets for many months, Zabuza-sama found me, and took me under his wing to become his weapon… his soldier… a shinobi he could use to fulfill his dreams and ambitions."

Naruto recoiled a little at this. The idea of someone being taken in to be used as a _weapon_ didn't really strike him as something that was good. However, he continued to listen, wanting to hear everything from Haku before adding his own opinion and making an overall conclusion.

Haku smiled, "I was happy. When Zabuza-sama took me in, acknowledged both me and my abilities, and trained me to become somebody who could be of use to him, he gave me a new purpose in life. He saved me and gave me a home. That's why…" She gazed up at the boy with a solid look in her eyes and her feelings set. "I would do anything Zabuza-sama asks of me. He is my precious person… someone whom I love very much."

A warm feeling came over Naruto as he registered to Haku's honest words with a smile. He nodded to the girl after hearing her tell her story of her past, which he found a lot of common ground in. After all, he grew up alone too, someone who was scorned and hated by many. He had to fight in order to survive and to get people to recognize his existence, in the same way that Haku did.

He could also see why Haku pledged so much loyalty to Zabuza-sama to the point that she would openly declare herself his tool. With everything that had happened to her growing up, the blonde saw why she would give so much to the one person who accepted her for who she was and took her in when she had nowhere else to go. Companionship and purpose was something Naruto sought after his entire life, and he found it in the people who were willing to let him in and acknowledged his presence.

For that reason, he didn't fight Haku's choice of words.

Everyone had values and beliefs of their own, and for someone who achieved happiness from them and lived a good life, Naruto wasn't going to change that.

"I guess that's why our eyes are the same, eh?" Naruto asked with a fond smile.

Surprised by his question, the teen giggled in return and nodded. "Indeed."

Excitement welling up within him once more, Naruto leaned forward while placing his hands on the table. "So-so! What's your kekkei genkai, Haku-chan? Can you tell me about it?"

From that point onwards, Haku and Naruto began a long and enlightening conversation with one another. After sharing so much with the other person about their past lives, at least the aspects they were willing to reveal, they started talking about other things. The jinchuriki became engrossed in what the young girl had to say about her abilities and how she trained to use them. She was super talented from what Naruto was able to take away from her tales, a person capable of astonishing feats and able to come up with innovative ideas and strategies on first glance. He also learned more about her and Zabuza's travels, which eventually led to their place here.

Naruto also went on to talk about his adventure to the _Land of the Great River_, as well as some of the trials he faced there. As established by both parties, neither of them revealed anything incriminating about the other. They dodged anything about Naruto's origins due to it possibly risking the delicate alliance they'd formed and veered off of material that was considered too personal.

Eventually the atmosphere of their surroundings was broken by a light knock on the door. When they looked over they saw Zabuza standing there and looking in, eyes sharp and serious as they always were. Once he was certain he'd gotten their attention, he walked in.

"You two seem to be getting along," the man exclaimed.

Naruto grinned nervously at the towering individual as he stopped beside their table, "You were listening to us?"

"This _is_ my home and you _are_ talking to my loyal subordinate. Why would I not listen in?" Zabuza asked while glaring down at him. "I was also curious to learn more about the strange new kid in the area, so I decided to eavesdrop while you were getting cozy with Haku."

The blonde laughed light-heartedly under the intimidating stare of the Jonin.

Motherfucker; this guy was terrifying.

He didn't want to do anything to antagonize or upset the man wielding the massive cleaver; otherwise he might suddenly find himself on the wrong end of it. So he tried his best to come off as unthreatening as he possibly could.

"I didn't mean to intrude on any of you. It's just… I like meeting new faces."

"So it appears," Zabuza replied with a smirk. "You certainly are a cheerful brat." When the jinchuriki made a bashful gesture while scratching the back of his head, the swordsman folded his arms and sat himself down as well. With all three of them now around the table, the Jonin began discussion of a new topic. "Let's disperse with the useless banter. I went out to see if I could find that dog that's hunting both you and the bridge builder's family." His eyes narrowed on the jinchuriki. "Now that I know you were telling the truth, we need to talk about how we're going to deal with Gato."

Blinking into realization, Haku nodded in understanding, "Of course…"

Sensing that talking time had finally arrived at its main issue, Naruto dove right on in. Seeing as how both Zabuza and Haku were willing to trust him to an extent now, the timing for this was perfect. "I know that we can get to Gato easily, but making any big moves on this island will be impossible with those two guys in black walking around," Naruto stated, getting the swordsman to consider their biggest problems. "I want to free this place from that glasses-wearing weasel, but we can't do anything unless both of them are out of the picture and Gato is gone."

Zabuza nodded, "That's a given. But taking on those two, even with Haku and me fighting in tandem, isn't going to do us any good." He dodged the fact that on his way back to this place he stopped by his old hideout. The carnage he found there was almost nauseating, so the Jonin decided to ignore the discovery for the benefit of both his student and guest. They didn't need to know that they were now on their own. "While I'm confident in my subordinate's abilities, against two opponents of that level… we wouldn't last ten minutes out in the open. We'll need to isolate them and take them down one at a time. We'll also need to take them by surprise." A confident look then flashed through his eyes as a grin spread across his covered lips. "That's my area of expertise."

"I bet it is… but…" Naruto frowned when he remembered some other important details. Oh yeah, how could he forget about something like that. "There's something you have to know about one of them. That Hidan guy, Kakuzu's partner… earlier today I hit him with an attack from a blind spot that should have turned his insides into slurry and dunked him underwater for over ten minutes. Even after all that, he still managed to get back up and come at me like it didn't affect him at all."

This piece of info had the swordsman scowl, "You couldn't kill him?"

"I did. The problem is… he didn't _die_," Naruto replied with a blank look on his face. "I don't know what he did or how he did it, but if he was able to survive an attack like the one I dropped on him and get up, then I don't think he can be killed so easily."

Zabuza rubbed his chin thoughtfully, looking over to see Haku also glaring intensely at the news. "So… not only are we dealing with _Takigakure's_ monster, but we also have _that_ guy to take care of," A person able to survive a direct killing blow without suffering a single broken bone. As scary as that was, Zabuza wasn't moved on the issue; he still intended to kill both those men with his sword. After thinking about it for a moment, the Jonin then steeled on a possible solution. "From what I gather, both of them are searching for two different groups of people; Kakuzu for my group and Hidan for you and the bridge builder's family. If we're able to keep them divided the way they are, then I'm sure we'll be able to beat them." He locked firmly back onto Haku. "We'll take out Hidan first."

The oldest girl nodded affirmatively, her own expression reflecting what Zabuza was thinking. "I believe that's the best course of action."

Zabuza glanced back over at Naruto to see the boy was listening intently to them as well. "We'll need to lure him out into an area where we'll be able to use the battlefield to our advantage. Haku said that you could use shadow clones, right?" Seeing the blonde nod got a smile from the swordsman. "Use them to get Hidan to follow you down to the incomplete bridge. When you do, I'll use my mist to knock out his field of vision and slice his throat open."

Acknowledging this plan of action, Naruto then gave the swordsman a more serious look as he pondered further into their actions for tomorrow, "While you guys are getting ready, I'll go back to Gato's mansion and capture him. Both of those Akatsuki guys are on different parts of the island, so I'm pretty sure I'll be able to break into that eyesore and take him before they have a chance to respond. Perhaps we can also get some extra leverage over them if we have that guy as a hostage."

"Fair enough," Zabuza murmured while furrowing his brow, "You can hide Gato in the village and deal with him afterwards. Perhaps when Kakuzu realizes his paycheck is gone, he'll just up and leave the island." Seeing Naruto nod, the Jonin then pointed at him, "You can send shadow clones to check up on him, and make sure he's kept busy while we take care of his partner."

Naruto grinned and stretched his fingers out so that their cracks echoed throughout the room, "No problem."

Zabuza chuckled at his enthusiasm, "You're a really strange kid; so easygoing and bright. Even when the situation is serious, you don't show an inch of losing your cool. I guess that's why Haku likes you."

The jinchuriki looked over at the older teen to see her beaming at him, which got him to blush a little and rub his head, "You think so?"

The swordsman rose to his feet and began marching back over to the door. When he stopped at the exit, he cut back towards the kids and gave them a look of consideration, particularly the blonde haired runt. "I trust you enough to count you as an ally today, brat. However, while I do not wish to harm the bridge builder's family, if you do anything to hurt Haku or make her cry, I won't hesitate to cut you down where you stand." He gave Naruto a courteous gesture and took his leave, leaving the room with a bit more chill than before.

Blinking after seeing the tall Jonin leave, Naruto glanced over at Haku and gave her a weak smile, "I think I've finally warmed up to him."

The older teen giggled, "I'm glad. It means he's okay with you and I being friends."

This got the aura surrounding Naruto to glow even brighter.

Sure, the swordsman still came off as a little bit harsh, but at least Naruto was getting somewhere with the guy. He still wouldn't want to be stuck alone with him though.

The having no eyebrows aspect gave him the creeps.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

* * *

**Author's Note:** Another! Man, I'm dishing these out quickly.

Anyway, another fun chapter I got to write. Naruto blind-sided Hidan with a fast _Jet Hand_ on a tree like he did Mizuki instead of fighting him directly (smart, because he would get killed in the first few minutes against the guy) and took off with Tsunami and Inari. The best hit and run ever!

Because Hidan was practically water logged and carrying that heavy scythe, which he said so himself in canon it inhibits his movements, he wasn't able to catch Naruto who was able to cover his getaway the same way he used against Kakashi in the bell test, and because Hidan doesn't know any jutsu to clear it, lost him.

While Hidan's hunting him, Kakuzu broke into Zabuza's old hideout and massacred everyone there. He's still hunting him as well.

And Naruto finally meets Haku and Zabuza, yay!

Originally I wrote that Haku was a boy, but while rewriting this arc I thought to myself, 'hmm, what would a fanfic writer do,' so I thought to hell with it and made her a girl. Now the world of Naruto makes a little more sense that she's a girl now.

Because Naruto's not wearing a shinobi headband and meets them under friendly terms, Zabuza was more compliant in listening to what he had to say. Being more reasonable, since he didn't encounter Kakashi's group in this arc and hasn't sworn vengeance against anyone, and wouldn't kill people outright without a good reason, he listened to what Naruto had to say and went to investigate if his story was true. They now resolve to take out Hidan while trying to avoid Kakuzu wherever he is now on the island.

Zabuza is a smart man who knows his enemies well. Since he knew so much about Kakashi, it would also make sense he knows many other noteworthy individuals, including Hidan and Kakuzu. But we never saw the extent of that knowledge realized so I expanded on that in this chapter.

Oh yes, and for everyone out there wondering why I put Hidan as a member of the Akatsuki so early, it's because I'm trying to align him with the timeline I gathered from _**Naruto Shippuden Episode 309**_. He appeared before the three year gap in that episode in a flashback with Akatsuki, so I assume he's been with the group for a little while based on how he was arguing with Kakuzu. In this story, he's only been with the group for two months, so he's new.

I hope you're all looking forward to the next chapter, because that's where the action starts. Peace.


	13. Mist Versus the Red Cloud

**NARUTO**

_**Drifting**_

_Mist Versus the Red Cloud_

**The very next morning…**

Situated on another part of the island, ways out of the way of Gato's mansion and Zabuza's home, and concealed beneath a large tree behind a thick metal door, there sat an elaborate underground complex.

With supporting walls hammered together out of wood, positioned in a way that it looked to have been constructed on a tight budget in a short period of time and with a handful of chambers making up its interior, the base stood as one of many small laboratories and outposts' setup by one Lord Orochimaru. Dank, hidden under the thick roots of a massive fig, and carrying the constant stench of decay in the air, every aspect of the hideout spoke of the Sannin in some way. It practically fitted his character to a T, yet he wasn't the one currently inhabiting its rooms.

When it was first established, the powerful shinobi formerly of _Konohagakure_ left it in the care of one of his most trusted servants. It was a branch of study he'd hoped would continue his cultivation of an entity capable of surviving in the harshest of environments; the sea being one of the many he wished to conquer one day. The head of the department Amachi, for many years now has been focusing on the creation of a being able to transform their body freely into that of an amphibious creature capable of breathing, hunting and living underwater.

It was an elaborate process. This research would not only help in the production of a new form of shinobi, one able to stretch the boundaries of what humans were capable of, but open the doors to a whole range of possibilities. This was why Orochimaru was investing so much time and effort into the project, because he wished to unlock these doors and gain access to them with his own body.

This was also the reason why he sent his most loyal subordinate, Kimimaro, to check on the facility and to get an update on their progress.

Several levels down, in the main laboratory where all the testing and blending took place, the white haired Kaguya himself stood waiting inside of the dark chamber, looking at all the tanks and knickknacks lying around him. To him, the sight of all the dead animals, body parts and vials of ooze strewn about the place were familiar and not at all unusual. Having spent a lot of his time in facilities very similar to this one, he wasn't put-off or thrown by the odd collection of research material in the slightest. He was even able to stomach the organs he was able to see from his spot and merely eyed them with a level of indifference.

After about half an hour of waiting, Kimimaro then had his attention drawn to one of the room's many entrances to see his host Amachi and his right-hand girl Isaribi emerge from the dark. Carrying in his arms a steel cylinder of sorts, the medical nin stood before the envoy and handed him the object, which the boy took without hesitation.

"These are the samples Orochimaru has been expecting from me," Amachi exclaimed, nodding to the package as Kimimaro analyzed it carefully. "Master has been investing a lot of interest in unification and refinement lately, particularly in animals and entities of an unconventional nature. I was finally able to figure out the formula for perfect convergence, one that would not only grant him the abilities from the subject he desires but leave the original physical structure of the user unaltered. I'm sure he'll be most pleased."

Blinking at the small tube, Kimimaro nodded before pocketing it. After which he then turned to Isaribi, whom he saw walk over and hand him a couple of scrolls. When the timid girl stepped back, Amachi gestured towards the new items in his grip.

"My research notes pertaining to the samples I just gave you," the medical nin replied, slipping his hands into his pockets. "They're but a first edition to the untold number of discoveries I wish to make in the foreseeable future. I only hope I can count on Orochimaru-sama's continued support in the matter."

Kimimaro acknowledged his good words with a silent stare before turning his eyes back onto the bandaged Isaribi. Seeing the girl shrink under his gaze, the boy frowned, "Are you happy with the work you are doing for Orochimaru-sama?"

Feeling the eyes of the Kaguya bore into her like drills and the crushing sensation of his presence fall upon her, Isaribi glanced up at him meekly while trying to make herself look as small as possible. "Y-Yes."

Kimimaro allowed a small smile to cross his face, "Rest assured; it is all for a good cause. Master only wishes to learn everything he can about the world and its secrets, so that he can one day conquer the strong that stand above the others and bring about a new era of peace and understanding."

Gazing at the older boy, Isaribi saw Kimimaro beaming at her with unwavering eyes. Despite the kindness he showed on the outside, underneath his gaze the girl saw the eyes of a man devoted entirely to his cause. It would only take a single word from the man he served to will this person to move, and Isaribi was certain from looking into the boy's irises that he was capable of laying waste to everything in his path.

His presence was choking, something that neither she nor Amachi could ignore. After all, they both knew he was Orochimaru's best and most powerful soldier. The teen was frighteningly assertive with his physical state and wasn't at all hesitant about making his existence known to all those in the room.

"Your work here will help uncover these wonders for Orochimaru-sama and elevate him to a higher plain of existence, one that will benefit the entire shinobi world," Kimimaro stated, pocketing the two scrolls as well and turning back to the head of the facility. "From what I can see with my own two eyes you are continuing to be of great service to our master."

"Indeed," the researcher exclaimed with a friendly visage. "I only wish I can do more for him."

"Perhaps one day you will," Kimimaro stated, looking between the pair before cutting his eyes fully towards Isaribi. "We are all destined for many great things. I believe this to be true, and that I am destined to serve my master to the end of time and to see that all of his dreams are realized."

"Well then, I pray for your continued success and hard work for Orochimaru-sama," Amachi bowed. "I hope this has been an enlightening trip for you."

"My many thanks for your hospitality," Kimimaro bowed in kind before looking around the lab once again, making one last check of everything and ensuring he had all details covered. "I believe I have seen all that I need to see here. If there is anything else you wish to report, do so now before I take my leave."

"Not at all," Amachi replied, at the same time turning to look down at the girl standing obediently beside him. "Your work for today is done here, Isaribi. You may return home."

Blinking, the girl glanced at her superiors before focusing on the medical nin once more, "W-What about your promise?"

The man laid a hand atop her head and patted it gently, "All in good time. Now go on." Amachi gently nudged her towards the exit, which the girl reluctantly approached. After looking back one last time at the high-standing individuals in the chamber, she then disappeared through the archway and around the bend.

Watching the girl leave with baited curiosity, Kimimaro glanced towards the head of the base and expressed his interest gently, "What is this 'promise' you made to her?"

Amachi smirked cockily, sensing his subordinate was now out of their reach, "I said to her months ago that if she continued to work for Orochimaru-sama and me that I would one day cure her of her condition."

"Condition?"

"She was the first of many test subjects in master's attempt to create a superb being capable of living and fighting underwater. Unfortunately… she is a… imperfect specimen; one who is unable to completely transform back into a human. In reality she's actually distorting the line between man and monster."

"She is defective then?" Kimimaro asked.

The scientist shrugged carelessly, "Of course, but she's still useful to me. She follows orders like a good girl and acquires all the material I need for my research."

"Then why aren't you helping her?" Kimimaro inquired in puzzlement. "Haven't you discovered a solution to her problem yet?"

Amachi let out a harsh laugh and looked around the lab grandiosely. "Not at all. To be frank, I haven't even bothered to look for a cure." He glanced back at the boy with a dark look in his eyes. "Why would I want to search for a solution and lose a good servant when I can just continue to bribe her into working for me? She's just a failed experiment, a project gone wrong… trash on the side of the road."

Kimimaro blinked in surprise. "You say she is trash, yet you keep her around."

"Look, the only worth she really has is to be recycled. Once she has done everything she can for me and her usefulness has run its course, I will dissect her and use her to further my experiments. That way I won't have to waste a single cell of her," Amachi chuckled, turning to face the boy fully once again. "After all, this is all for Orochimaru-sama."

Hearing this earned a moment of silence from the teen. After considering the man's words carefully and the point he was making, the envoy then nodded in understanding. "We must do what we can for our master."

Amachi chuckled, "That's what I thought."

While the scientist and Kimimaro concluded their business in the main lab and the former left through another exit to collect the rest of his research notes, unbeknownst to both of them, behind the archway she had walked through Isaribi stood quietly, having hung back long enough to listen to what they had to say.

After hearing what her handler said to Orochimaru's most loyal servant, the girl quickly fell into complete and utter shock. Pressed up against the wall with her body trembling and fingers clenching, the purple haired chimera slowly slid down to the floor and gripped her hair in bunches.

She couldn't wrap her head around it. Eyes wide in disbelief, Isaribi attempted to process everything that she had heard with everything she had done in the past couple of years. From what she could figure, all of the work she had seen through, all of the crimes she had committed and all of the people she had hurt to get to where she was right now, all in the name of this Lord Orochimaru person, it had all been for naught? The promises that had been made to her; they had all been empty promises?

"H-How could they…?"

The road she had been walking down this entire time she had originally believed to be her salvation. She thought that if she'd continued to do the best she could for these people that they would cure her of her disease and release her from this curse that had been so cruelly thrust upon her. But in reality, all of that hard work, all it led her towards was nothing; just a cliff at the end with a long drop and her demise.

All Amachi had been doing was wearing her out and using her to fulfill his own ends. Instead of finding a solution for her, he'd found a different use for her, a use that lay at the end of a knife.

Tears brimming in her eyes, Isaribi thought back to all the blood and sweat she had shed, and the people that had pushed her away, shunned her, and ridiculed her. The eyes that looked at her on the streets, the sneers and the terrified faces of civilians, all of it came back to her all at once and filled her head and heart with despair. Sobs starting to make their way to the surface, the girl's hopes for escape from this retched world plummeted. At the same time, a sense of dread befell her as she began to believe that all was lost for her… that there was no light for her at the end of this tunnel…

Only nothingness. A life filled with sorrow and loneliness…

However, as despair and anguish started to take her over and consume her, in that very instant she remembered one other thing.

Out of all the clutter and darkness of her past, a small glimmer of hope suddenly emerged; a single speck of light that gleamed through the black. This came to her in the form of a recent memory, of a person who came to her and sat with her, treated her like a person and accepted her for who she was. The face of a grinning, blonde haired boy appeared in her head, one that had Isaribi look up in stunned surprise when she remembered his words.

"_If you need any help Isaribi-chan, don't be afraid to come find me, okay?"_

"N-Naruto-kun?"

Out of all the misery and desolation that came to her, why did his face appear? Was it her mind responding to her in the search of a way out? A lingering thought? Memory? Something she thought might comfort her in her time of need?

Having been alone all this time and treated as an outcast, she'd grown to distrust the world and its people. As a result, she felt no need for comfort and didn't give any to herself. Maybe it was because of this the boy's voice resonated so strongly in her head, because he had been the only, sole comforting voice she'd heard in a long, long time.

Whatever the answer was, Isaribi realized it was not over for her yet. No.

There was still one person out of the entire world out there who held out hope for her; a person who could help her. She wasn't just going to sit here and cry, nor was she going to offer herself up as a piece of meat to the people using her. No way. Not to these liars and definitely not to this Orochimaru. If there was no light at the end of this path, then she needed to find another.

Wanting to see Naruto's gentle, reassuring smile again, Isaribi bucked up whatever strength she could muster and prepared to leave. However, before she could make her way to the ocean-direct exit of the facility, she suddenly heard a commotion in the room behind her and stopped. Quickly and carefully, the girl peered around the archway and back into the lab, wondering what all the scuffling she could hear was about.

When she did, Isaribi caught a glimpse of the events taking place beyond the threshold, a sight which had her eyes widen in terror.

Standing in the middle of the room with a look of surprise on his face, Kimimaro glared towards the archway Amachi had exited through a few minutes ago. It was there the Kaguya saw that the man had returned, but for some strange reason was standing there, still as a statue, with a hole in his stomach and looking back at him with dead eyes.

After remaining upright in place for a few more seconds, swaying a couple of times, the medical nin finally tipped over, hitting the ground with a deafening thud.

When the body fell, the dead Amachi revealed that a new figure had in fact been standing behind him in the shadows of the corridor. This stranger stood at the same height as Amachi, so he had been able to conceal himself until the grand curtain fell. Wearing a long black cloak with red clouds and a mask that concealed much of his face and head, the person stepped out of the darkness and into the dull light of the laboratory. Looking around in momentary interest, his eyes then locked onto Kimimaro positioned directly before him in the chamber.

"Well, isn't this interesting," the deep, menacing voice of Kakuzu filled the room as he approached the still cool-looking Kaguya. "And here I was beginning to think I had just found Zabuza Momochi's new hideout, but it turns out to be somebody else's…" Stopping several meters out from the albino, he looked the boy up and down before taking careful note of the purple rope wrapped around his waist. "To think that Orochimaru actually had a base setup all the way out here in this dead-end of a country."

Kimimaro's glare hardened, knowing full well exactly who he was currently addressing and the organization he represented. In spite of this, he showed no signs of fear or any intentions of backing down whatsoever. That was not his call to make. "What business does Akatsuki have here in the _Land of Waves_?"

"Oh, nothing much. I'm just here on a little hunting trip with my mentally handicapped teammate. I was actually in the process of searching for my prey's nest and just happened to stumble upon this place by accident," Kakuzu replied offhandedly, his green eyes hardening on the youngster. "I believe this is something of good fortune to me, since my group has been chasing up any leads that they can regarding the location of one of our former members for quite some time now…" The bounty hunter said this next bit with a little more venom in his voice. "Being one of his lackeys, you should know exactly who I'm talking about. Why don't you tell me where your boss is hiding and I will let you leave here with your life."

Eyes narrowing dangerously, Kimimaro rolled his left shoulder, shrugging off his robe in that area before a loud creaking sound echoed out. A second later, a white protrusion of some sorts suddenly poked out of his collar before he reached up with his right hand, grabbed it, and yanked it out, revealing it to be a sharp, white blade comprised entirely of bone. Upon drawing this weapon, he took a balanced stance and glared his foe down with the coldest gaze he could muster.

"My sole reason for existing is in service of my master," Kimimaro said with a cool yet firm voice, which carried the spit of a threat. "No one, not even Akatsuki trash like you, will be able to get that kind of information out of me. All of you are so far beneath his greatness you won't be able to lay even one finger on him.…"

"That's not what I heard from Itachi-san," Kakuzu chuckled darkly, tilting his head to the side. "From what I was told, your boss isn't as untouchable as the Sannin legends say he is. The snake took off with his tail hanging between his legs the moment he had his hand lopped off by his former partner. That's pretty laughable if you ask me. Does he still have the ring that was attached to it? We would really like to have that back."

Kimimaro frowned as he seized the shadowy figure up. Ignoring the besmirching information regarding his beloved leader being shot back at him, the white haired boy decided to spin a little spiders silk himself. "Your organization was of no interest to my master, nor were its miniscule goals. After all, you mongrels are only focused on hunting down those tailed beasts and their human containers, the jinchuriki. With such narrow-minded ambitions, it doesn't surprise me one bit that Orochimaru-sama only wished to hasten the progress of his own aspirations by acquiring some of your secrets for his own use."

Eyes widening, Isaribi pulled back a little and searched her memories quickly. _"Akatsuki… hunting tailed beasts and jinchuriki?"_ That's right. Naruto was a jinchuriki.

What the hell did these people want with him?

"Your reputation precedes you, Kakuzu of _Takigakure_," Kimimaro exclaimed, seeing the man remain still in his place. "I hope you don't think I should fear you because of that."

Kakuzu breathed an exhausted sigh and cracked his neck to the side carelessly. As much as he liked banter with his opponents on occasion, this kid was so turned around it was like trying to convince a fulltime and ardent smoker to stop smoking. "I guess we'll be doing this the hard way then." The masked bounty hunter glared across at the teen as he set himself for battle. "This whole hunt for the _Demon of the Hidden Mist_ has been starting to grind on me. It will do me a world of good to take some of my frustrations out on one of Orochimaru's lap dogs."

"I can assure you that you will not find me to be an easy opponent," Kimimaro stated calmly. "If that is what you are hoping for than I'm afraid you're to be sorely disappointed."

"Personally I prefer that my targets lasts more than just a few seconds in a fight. It gives me something to vent on while I make a mockery of their abilities," Kakuzu exclaimed, looking the youngster over. "You're a descendent from the _Kaguya Clan_, its sole surviving member… and an inheritor of their feared kekkei genkai, I see." His eyes narrowed dangerously. "It's been a while since I last fought one of your clansmen wielding your unique bloodline… about fifty years by my estimate."

Kimimaro frowned, "You seem very knowledgeable about me."

"I am," Kakuzu stated while holding up his right hand. When he did, his dark skin turned a grayish black as he formed a fist, which he bucked towards his opponent threateningly. "And I'll tell you this now… the one that I squared off with all those years ago didn't end up living for very long after facing me. Your fate will be the same as hers, boy."

"We'll see," Kimimaro replied.

The moment the Kaguya said that, he sprang forth from his spot and charged, spinning his bone blade in his hand before swiftly lunging with it at the Akatsuki member. Kakuzu effortlessly blocked it with his bare hand, a loud clang ringing out as sparks flew between them. In the midst of the exchange Kimimaro glared furiously yet calmly at his opponent, who in turn stared back with his unreadable, blank gaze.

Feeling the pressure building between the two combatants and the situation starting to become noticeably more dangerous, Isaribi quickly decided to take her leave so as to not get caught in the crossfire. Since neither of them knew she was still there she knew she was safe, and with the information she had been able to acquire from them, would be able to stay ahead of whoever these Akatsuki people were.

Dashing down the corridor and down the stairs, Isaribi headed for the exit as swiftly as she could.

She had to warn Naruto…

OOO

**Meanwhile…**

**Across the channel…**

Sitting up in a tree overlooking a large waterfront with a handful of ferries docked at the number of peers leading out over the water, the plucky, red haired kunoichi Tayuya sat quietly overlooking the area. After a full afternoon and night of hard running across the country, the musician soon found herself on the southern coast in the area of the _Land of Wave_.

It didn't take her long to find the exact channel leading between the mainland and the island nation, with the latter being a little bit closer to where she was then she originally thought. It was about a kilometer across; nothing too major. However, as soon as she arrived at the nearest port with ferries scheduled to make trips to and from the neighboring country, she found her route blocked by a very familiar sight.

Mercenaries and staff working under the Gato banner marching all around the water front. Any and all stations selling tickets for passage across to the other side of the causeway were being run by _Gato Shipping and Transport_, a view that Tayuya hated with a passion.

Apparently the memories of what had been done to her by similar goons working for the same man were still fresh in her mind, feelings she had to keep tightly bound on a leash to prevent her from going down there and laying waste to the entire place.

There were a few regular civilians walking around amongst the thugs, all of whom were looking a little stressed out due to the presence of the muscle. This illustration alone was more than enough for Tayuya to determine that things around this part of the _Land of Fire_ and ocean front were more than just a bit strenuous. It was like déjà vu, a repeat of what the _Land of the Great River_ had been like two years ago, except this one was being covered up a lot better than the other country.

It appeared that Gato had learned a thing or two about setting up shop and lynching money from the people from past experience. The port she was looking at appeared fine from a distance, but on closer inspection of the staff, workmen and civilians, things were beyond normal.

The fire breasted swallow sitting on the branch beside her chirped quietly, which got a nod from the kunoichi. Though Tayuya couldn't understand the bird, she got the gist of what she was probably saying to her.

"I can't believe shithead made it through there without being discovered," Tayuya whispered, glaring up and across towards the island in the distance. Due to the morning mist covering the water, it made surveying the various sea patrols along the way a little more challenging. "The transporter must have had special clearance. Only people who are invited are going to get through there without any hassles."

Putting a hand over her eyes, Tayuya looked to her left across the port and down the coast, where she could see a few more boats docked a little ways away, as well as what she guessed were a few patrol vessels.

She had to admit, Gato really knew how to dress up his security. All of the smaller boats she could see out on the channel through the fog were there to keep the troublemakers out and the customers in.

"It's like trying to sneak into a damn fortress," Tayuya murmured, biting her teeth together. While she knew a shinobi would be able to get through this blockade easily, it still looked like a harrowing venture. "That weasel really knows how to grate on people. What am I supposed to do?"

She wasn't going to be just satisfied with sneaking in. Oh no. Looking down at the seaport below, she could see the mercenaries strutting about like they owned the place and how they came off as so untouchable. That shit just wasn't going to fly with Tayuya. She needed to do something about them otherwise they were going to continue harassing the people in this region, as well as anyone coming in and out of the area.

So, quickly deciding on an appropriate course of action to take, Tayuya allowed a smirk to cross her face as she pulled out her flute. She looked across at Swift to see the bird ruffle her feathers and ready her wings to go.

"Want to help?" She saw the bird nod and whistle brightly, resulting in her grin widening. "Alright. Let's raise some hell."

She needed to perform a little reconnaissance. But once she was certain of the number of people here and who she was dealing with, soon this port was going to be hers.

Unlike Naruto, she had her own way of beating the shit out of cannon fodder…

OOO

**Sometime later…**

On another far part of the island, up in the enormous mansion built for the billionaire shipping magnate in charge of all business in the area, it was just another regular morning. Waking to the sound of his alarm clock going off and getting ready in the usual manner with help from his servants, the boss of _Gato International,_ Gato himself, slowly headed down to his office for a long day of 'work.' What with all the things that had been going on in the past couple of days, cutting payroll, firing people, and hiring terrifying bounty hunters to take care of some local problems, you could say the man had a bit of paperwork to get through.

However, instead of sitting down and getting right to it, the man instead decided to start the day off with a healthy breakfast. Once again calling upon the aid of his servants, Gato ordered a delightful Western style meal with orange juice, a treat only he could enjoy with the amount of wealth he possessed in such a poor nation. Pulling up the paper as he kicked back in his swivel-capable chair, the boss looked out the window as the day slowly pulled into early noon just a few hours away.

While he sat and enjoyed himself under the glow of the rising sun, Gato was soon joined by Waraji and Zori, both of whom went about occupying themselves in the office however they could. They pulled up to their table on the side of the chamber and had their own breakfast over a game of dominoes. It was routine for them as well, with nothing pressing taking place in those first couple of hours to warrant any concern or action.

However, while looking up the economy section of the newspaper to check on his stocks, the magnate suddenly heard the buzzer on his desk ring. Moaning in annoyance, the man folded up the paper, sat forward and jabbed his finger on the button, silencing the noise.

"What?"

"_**Hey uh, boss, umm… sorry to disturb you, but uhh…"**_

The business owner rolled his eyes, "What is it? Speak up."

"_**There's… this uhh… kid at the front gate here to see you. Umm… he says he has an appointment with you."**_

Raising an eyebrow, Gato looked over at his two henchmen. Having heard the voice over the com, both Waraji and Zori shrugged, as neither of them knew anything about any visitors or appointments. Taking this as his answer and not knowing anything about this, the mogul returned to answer the speaker.

"My book says there's no appointments listed. Tell the brat to buzz off!"

"_**Right'o, boss."**_ 'Click'

Gato groaned as he sat back in his chair, picking up his paper again and unfurling it, "Sometimes the people I hire just don't know how to use channels at all. If there's an issue regarding a customer, contact my fucking secretary. There's a perfectly good one in the lobby." Licking his finger he turned the page, not really interested in dealing with employee competence at the moment.

Seeing their boss return to his business, Waraji and Zori did the same.

The next several minutes passed by in relative silence, with Gato's breakfast soon arriving to be laid out before him. As he dug in with his fork and continued to read the paper, about fifteen minutes of silence later, there was a knock on the door. Groaning again at the person's failed use of the buzzer, he turned towards the entrance and growled.

"What is it this time?!"

Watching the handle turn, the three men in the room then saw a woman's head poke into view. Recognizing her as the secretary, Waraji and Zori sat back and continued drinking their juice, while their boss welcomes the sight of his cute desk assistant.

"Uh Gato, sir," the woman spoke up.

"Yes, Sonia, what is it?" Gato asked, lying back while watching the lady with brown hair and wearing a brown suit step fully into view. She was lucky she was so attractive otherwise he would have thrown the book at her.

"You have a visitor, sir."

"If this is Klaus's vice president coming to discuss new agreements, tell him I'm busy," the short man dismissed with a wave while picking up his own drink.

"Well umm," Sonia continued while stepping aside even more, grabbing the door handle to pull it further open. "It's not a representative, sir. He says he's family."

"Family?" Gato recoiled slightly in his seat while holding his glass. "I don't have any siblings, and father died long ago…" The exact cause of death was shrouded in mystery, but that wasn't important right now.

Whining uncomfortably, the secretary then decided to open the door completely, where Gato then saw a few of his guards standing in an orderly fashion, inside the frame, at attention. Upon being revealed, the three burly looking men dressed in suits, stared lifeless across at the befuddled tyrant before, at the exact same time as each other, keeled over. When their bodies slammed into the ground with three simultaneous thumps, they revealed a boy of around eleven years old or so, dressed in orange with a mop of yellow spiky hair on his head, standing atop their backs proudly with his chest puffed out.

Foot placed on the back of one of the men's craniums he was astride, the familiar, whisker-marked face of one Naruto Uzumaki came into view, a sight that had Gato's eyes widen in horror and the grip around his glass of orange juice loosen. His morning drink bounced off his desk and shattered on the ground, spilling its contents everywhere.

The jinchuriki grinned widely as he came face to face with his longtime enemy, before throwing his hands out grandly, "Aww, come on Gato! Don't you remember me?"

Both Waraji and Zori, in the middle of drinking, spat out the juice in their mouths in shock and coughed when some of it went down the wrong way. Immediately upon recovering, both men leapt to their feet and gripped the handles of their swords in preparation for attack. Before they could even draw them however, Naruto had already swiped his hand through the air and fired off two projectiles at them.

The fast moving balls smacked the pair in their faces and exploded, splattering unidentifiable ooze across their gobs. Unable to gasp due to the their mouths being covered, both men dropped their weapons and, in a panic, tried to rip the gunk off, only to have their hands glued to the same shit when they reached up to grip it. Staggering and struggling to breathe, they collapsed to their knees as Naruto hopped off of his previous victims and, hands resting comfortably in his pockets, strolled across the carpet towards Gato's desk.

By the time he arrived within a few feet of the station, both Waraji and Zori were out cold on the floor, having panicked into unconsciousness due to a significant lack of oxygen.

All of this commotion didn't seem to bother the still present Sonia in the least, who stood by the open doors looking a little bit bewildered.

Gato however, knew exactly what was going on and backed up into his chair as much as he could. Unfortunately for him, his chair didn't have wheels and as a result, he was left to sink into it as Naruto casually hopped onto his desk and, hands still sheathed, marched over to his side of it. Kneeling down, the blonde came in close proximity with his prey and grinned when he saw sweat begin pouring down the magnate's terrified face.

Gulping, Gato gave a mouse-like squeak. He couldn't talk normally anymore due to the fact he suddenly found himself afflicted by an uncommon case of dread and foreshadowing. "Y-You… w-what…"

"Yes~" Naruto said slowly, encouraging the man to continue.

Gato gulped deeply, "W-What are you doing here?"

"Oh, you know, the usual," Naruto began, "Enjoying the sights, beating the shit out of your thugs…" His grin grew a few centimeters wider, "Visiting old friends."

"Y-Y-You're…" the magnate stammered, "Th-That brat…"

The jinchuriki nodded while giving his characteristic fox-like smile, "Naruto Uzumaki; local super hero and employee of the month, at your service."

Ignoring the rest of it, all the magnate could do was essentially wet his pants as he saw the blonde place a finger on his chin and look up thoughtfully. The company boss was shaking so much it was almost like he was having a seizure.

"Hmm," the jinchuriki murmured curiously. "Now let me see… what is it that I normally do when I run into an old friend I haven't seen in two years, particularly one responsible for putting me and Tayuya-chan through all that shit from before." Thinking on it a little, Naruto then made an expression of sudden realization and snapped his fingers. "Oh yeah… that's right." He looked back at the boss. "I knock their lights out!"

Before he knew it, all Gato saw next was the Cheshire grin that appeared across Naruto's visage, followed shortly by the blonde's fist filling his vision when it impacted against his face and knocked him backwards, along with his chair. After a dull thud echoed throughout the room, Gato soon found himself on the floor, on his back, with his glasses shattered, nose broken, teeth missing, and a fist imprint in his face.

Shaking his left fist out, the blonde smiled down at his handiwork and said, "That was for Tayuya," before looking over at the secretary, who had watched the entire scene with great interest.

The jinchuriki had been grateful for the fact that the lady up front was actually an islander and had been forced into working for Gato when he took over, otherwise getting past her would have been hell.

Nevertheless, getting up here had been no trouble at all, which had Naruto beam back at the assistant and give her a thumbs-up. "Thanks, Sonia."

The woman in the suit smiled brightly in response, "Anytime, Mister Naruto."

OOO

**Outside Gato's mansion…**

The area in front of the estate's gates was currently the site of utter chaos and ruin.

After informing Gato that he had a visitor and being informed in kind that there were no visitors scheduled for that hour, the guards at the front of the mansion had then gone through the excruciating effort of attempting to harry Naruto off of the property. This turned out to be a futile venture as the jinchuriki not only stubbornly refused to move from his spot, but after having over a dozen knives and weapons drawn on him, the kid proceeded to beat the stuffing out of every man in sight.

The gate guards were the first to go, which in turn heralded the arrival of dozens more men that had been strutting about the estate and watching the walls. However, despite the sheer numbers that came out of the woodwork to deal with the intruder, Naruto defeated each and every single one of them swiftly without even breaking a sweat. While some of the more burly and larger than normal mercenaries proved a bit more of an obstacle to climb, the blonde downed them with a few quick shots to the stomach, liver and spleen, before hitting them across the head.

Sure he could have used shadow clones, but none of them gave him the exact same satisfaction he got caving in faces with his own two hands.

Eventually, the entire courtyard was littered with unconscious and badly beaten brutes. After which, Naruto then marched his way into the lavish home, asked the nice secretary lady at the lobby-like entrance to take him up to Gato, and kicked the shit out of all the men he bumped into on the way there.

This all eventually culminated in his current situation. After sacking the shipping magnate and his goons stationed in the room, Naruto then tied the boss up, removed the gunk from the two unconscious swordsmen's faces, tied them up, left them against the wall, and dragged Gato's gagged and bound body back to ground level. He wasn't going to kill him or the muscle… not yet anyway. If this nation was ever going to get back to its feet, he was going to let the people get their chance to deal some justice. All he did was soften them up a little.

Naruto returned to the gate at the front to find all of the mercenaries he'd left scattered across the yard still in their places, to which he gave a single look over before summoning a plethora of shadow clones to gather them up and bind them.

Once everyone was shoved up against a far wall, Naruto then proceeded to carry Gato's body over his shoulder through the gates towards the village. However, just before he could get fifty paces out of the entrance, he suddenly felt a small presence approaching him from the lowlands and looked in the direction of said beacon.

Several seconds later, upon picking up the person's signature on the wind, he spotted a very familiar figure emerge from the nearby forests, sprinting towards him. When Naruto saw the person cart to a stop in front of him, he smiled when he saw that his hunch as to the identity of the person had been right on the mark. "Isaribi-chan. What's up?

Out of breath and sweating, the exhausted, purple-haired teen slowly looked up at the boy from her hunched over position and locked onto his eyes. Though she was all kinds of amazed to have actually found him here after splitting up from him further down the road a day ago, she was still composed and clear-minded enough to remember why she'd ran all the way up here to Gato's residence in search of him.

She had intended to start looking for him here when she arrived, since she was the one who gave him directions to this place. How lucky was she to actually meet him here the day after?

"N-Naruto," Isaribi gasped, wiping moisture from her brow with her gauze covered arm. Recovering as best she could, she braced herself where she was doubled-over, "I need to tell you… y-you're in danger."

"Huh? Me?" Naruto asked, unceremoniously dropping Gato's unconscious body to the floor like a bag of flour. It hit the ground like a bag of flour too from the thud that rang out, but neither teen seemed to notice or care. "What danger? What's going on?"

Just as the jinchuriki was stepping towards her, the boy suddenly saw Isaribi swallow hard before unexpectedly leaping at him with a hug. The blonde froze in place when the girl's arms snapped around him and remained standing there with a deer caught in the headlights look for the next few seconds.

Staring ahead of him momentarily, Naruto then looked down when he started to feel the girl shivering against him. Slowly but surely, after registering to the fact that he was being hugged, the blonde also wrapped his arms around her in kind when he heard the girl sniffle into his jacket.

"The people I was working for…" Isaribi sobbed, rubbing her eyes into his shoulder, "They promised me that if I continued to work for them that they would help me one day … and make me normal again… b-but…" Her body tensed in the boy's grip, getting the blonde to look down at her in concern, "But they weren't going to! They lied to me!"

Stunned, the jinchuriki remained quiet as the girl cried into him and rubbed her back gently. When he felt her trembling ease up, he let out a steady breath, "I'm sorry…"

Isaribi gripped his jacket tightly, opening her eyes to the world again as she felt his gentle embrace seemingly envelop her even more so. "I was just being used. They were going to force me to keep working for them for as long as they could a-and then… they were going to dissect me… kill me…" Sniffing a bit more and rubbing her eyes, she looked up at the boy and showed him the tears in her eyes. "That's all I ever was to them. Just a failed scientific experiment, worthless trash, a freak… a monster… I… I don't know… I don't know what to do… I…"

Placing his hand behind her head, Naruto pulled her into another comforting hug and held her tightly. As the girl started to cry again, the jinchuriki beamed as she let it all out, gently rocking her from side to side in a soothing manner.

After a moment of letting her express her emotions, Naruto spoke up, "There's nothing wrong with you, Isaribi-chan." He loosened his grip so that the girl could ease off. When she did and looked him in the eyes, he gazed at her, "You're not a bad person, you're not a freak… and you're not a monster. You can't let these people get to you, no matter what. If you do, then their faces and their voices will just haunt you for the rest of your life. You can't let them do that."

Blinking away her tears, the girl was about to open her mouth to say something until the boy continued on without missing a beat.

"Even though they lied about helping you and used you, it doesn't mean it's the end. There are always other avenues you can take and things you can do to find a solution. After all, where there's a will, there's a way," Naruto quoted cheesily before his grin came out full force. "You're a strong girl, Isaribi. Don't let this thing beat you. Everything will be alright, I promise."

Upon hearing his words, Isaribi gave a small nod of her head and wiped away the rest of her tears. Backing up, she blushed a little at the wet stain she left in Naruto's jacket, before slowly returning to the situation at hand. Fingers interlocking, she stared at the boy warmly. "Thank you…"

"Don't mention it," Naruto replied with a fond gaze. "I did say for you to come find me if you ever needed any help, didn't I? Well… here you are."

Before their conversation could carry along that line, Isaribi then quickly recalled the other important thing she had to tell the boy before her emotional storm had interrupted them. It had been really tough on her finding out that after all this time she was just an experiment being used, and had been an even more turbulent experience seeing her previous handler from months past murdered by a terrifying stranger.

Speaking of which, it was _this_ person who was the main reason that she had gone off to find Naruto so quickly.

Shaking her head, Isaribi recovered as fast as she could and stepped towards the boy with concern reflected in her eyes, "Naruto, there is a man on this island hunting for you."

"A man?" Wait… could she mean…?

"Yes," Isaribi nodded, "A man wearing a black cloak with red clouds on it and a mask. He's someone from an organization called the Akatsuki; a group that the envoy from Lord Orochimaru said was hunting for tailed beasts and jinchuriki." She gulped when she saw the shocked look come across Naruto's face. "I think… by jinchuriki… he means you…"

Looking away for a moment, Naruto thought about the two men whom he saw back in Gato's office the other day. While it was apparent to him that both of the mercenaries were bad news, he had very little information regarding the organization that they represented, as well as other potential members that were a part of their group. Zabuza said that these people were powerful and that even one of them alone could give them more than a few problems.

That was worrisome enough. Now however, he had something even more staggering to add to the facts he'd already managed to compile regarding the strangely dressed men.

They were after tailed beasts? Jinchuriki?

That meant those guys were after the Kyuubi inside of him. If that were the case, then whatever business these people had with the biju and for whatever reason they wanted the fox for, didn't fill him with anything positive. It actually filled him with a sense of trepidation, as he could sense something foul about the whole thing.

In spite of the shock he received from learning this, Naruto shook his head and looked back at Isaribi to see her staring at him in worry. "So their organization is after people like me? Okay. Good to know." His expression became serious as he gazed back into the girl's shimmering eyes. "If that's the case, then I should probably keep my distance from them. They're definitely not the kind of scrubs I want to mess around with if they're looking to catch and kill jinchuriki." He clenched his fists tightly and looked over his shoulder next. "However… I think I'm safe for now."

"Really? H-How come?"

"If they were really after jinchuriki _**now**_, like actually going from country to country hunting for tailed beasts, then that Hidan guy would have recognized me on the spot." They were a shady organization that only a handful of circles knew about and were chasing after specific targets. If this was true, then one even as closed off from the world as Naruto could safely bet that they would be pretty well informed.

There were only a few jinchuriki, right? So that meant they were looking for certain faces and profiles; something the blonde was sure these guys would have spent a lot of time memorizing.

That Hidan guy didn't appear to be very bright though, so even if they were hunting for jinchuriki, he probably wouldn't have recognized him.

Naruto nodded as he landed on a reasonable conclusion before looking back at Isaribi. "If he didn't recognize me, then I don't have to worry about both of them coming at me in full force."

"O-Okay," the girl nodded in understanding, seeing the blonde smile assuredly towards her. "So… what are you going to do now?"

This question had the boy send her his most dashing smirk before he wiped his thumb across his nose confidently. Puffing his chest out, he straightened up to full height, "We're going to save this country. That's what we're going to do." When he saw the confused look on Isaribi's face, the jinchuriki pointed down the hill in the direction of the main village as well as the continent resting over the horizon. "A couple of friends and I have setup an ambush down on the incomplete bridge next to the channel. We're going to lure one of those Akatsuki guys onto it, surround him, and take him out. If we can get rid of him, then we'll be able to take care of his partner or force him to leave this place. Once they're both gone, Gato won't have any more power to enforce his rule here." To emphasize this, he kicked the unconscious man on the ground in the side, eliciting a grunt from him. "Simply taking him hostage won't be able to chase these two thugs away. I'm sure they will fight back to try and free him. But if we hold him out of sight and keep him in our possession, we'll have the advantage."

Isaribi nodded, her expression livening up as she fully processed what Naruto was telling her.

If you were to look at the current picture as a game of chess; Gato was the king, and the many mercenaries he had under his banner were his pawns and rooks. These two Akatsuki guys however, even though they were working for the enemy king, they weren't part of his army. They were basically knights of a different color taking orders from a higher power, but had allied themselves with the magnate. Even though Naruto had managed to capture the king and had taken down the small platoon of pawns protecting him, these Akatsuki guys would still act on their own for the king.

They were still a threat. As long as they were in the area, they were a danger to both the family Naruto was protecting and the nation itself. They needed to be taken off of the board in order to win the game, which was why the jinchuriki and his friends had coordinated themselves in this way.

Once those two were beaten, it would all be over.

It was then a serious look crossed Isaribi's face, "About your plan…" Naruto quickly had his ears on her, "That man I mentioned to you earlier, the Akatsuki one… he's currently stuck at my handler's base fighting Orochimaru's strongest bodyguard."

"Huh? Seriously?" Naruto asked. Damn. That was convenient. "Will he be able to hold him off?"

"I… don't know," Isaribi replied, looking a little tense. "But I do know that Kimimaro is incredibly powerful… everyone working for Orochimaru knows that. He won't go down so easily, even against an army."

"Well, if he can keep that guy there, then that's perfect," Naruto said with a grin. "We'll be able to focus on taking out the other one without having to worry about his partner walking in on us." Bending over, he picked up the bundle that was Gato and hung him over his shoulder again. Making sure he had a good hold of him, Naruto beamed across at the still worried looking girl. "It's three against one, with the three consisting of Haku-chan, me, and an angry Jonin carrying a cleaver capable of making cutlets out of an entire buffalo. If you ask me, I really like our chances in this."

Isaribi stared at the boy silently for a bit. Seeing him smile and practically glow in the light radiating off of him, the girl couldn't help but gaze at his face in awe.

After a minute ticked by and the purple-haired diver was left to ponder over her tremulous thoughts, she then arrived at a decision with herself and looked up at the jinchuriki, "C-Can I come with you?" Seeing the blond blink encouraged Isaribi to continue, her resolve steeling and determination returning. This young strange had expressed confidence in her and given her comfort no other person ever had before. She was resolute in wishing to abide by these words and hang onto the one thing that had helped lift her up in her time of need. "Please, Naruto-kun."

Processing her question, the jinchuriki gave a smile. "You don't have anywhere else to go?" Seeing her shake her head had Naruto's smile transform into a grin. "Sure. You can tag along. But you may want to keep your distance for this one, Isaribi. It's going to get a little rough."

Brightening up at hearing his answer, the purple haired girl then gave him a very serious, very roguish looking smirk. This was something Naruto didn't expect to see from the mostly timid teen, not to mention the thing she had to say next. "I've been sacking Gato's ships by myself for the past few months I've been stationed here, so I'm not as weak as you think I am." She held her hands at her sides and clenched them into fists. "Plus… I think having me on your team makes your odds of success a little bit better, don't you think?"

Wow. Where did that come from?

Maybe Naruto's words gave her more of a confidence boost then he previously thought they did.

Upon seeing the reflection in Isaribi's eyes change, the jinchuriki returned to his usual persona of brightness and acknowledged the girl's words accordingly. "Alright then. Let's do this."

OOO

**Sometime later…**

Elsewhere on the island, not too far away from Gato's mansion, a certain silver-haired, sailor-mouthed assassin was currently in a slight pickle of his own.

While not engaged in actual combat or anything like it, having traversed much of the woods the entire night beforehand, you could say that Hidan was in a bit of a foul mood. Cursing up a storm and treating his sickle like it was a machete, the man sliced his way through the forest at a furious pace, his focus dead-set on finding that blonde haired brat that smashed him with a fifty year old oak and attempted to drown him under it. Anger at that memory aside, he also wanted to kill the kid and that family with him so as to fulfill his obligation to his God.

"All three of them will make a fine offering to Lord Jashin!" Hidan growled, "Especially that runt! When I get my hands on him, I…" He suddenly stopped.

After cutting his way through into a clearing, the Akatsuki member wielding the scythe froze and looked around him when he sensed the approach of someone or something in his general area. Holding his weapon out to his side, the man's eyes panned through the woods, shrubs and canopy, scanning the rays of light breaking through the leaves as well as the shadows of every branch. Eventually, the entity responsible for setting off his warning bell came into sight; Hidan's eyes fixing on the tree above to see the familiar form of his target drop down from the canopy onto a visible branch below.

Wearing his characteristic grin, Naruto waved as he squatted down on the tree's limb, his own dangling in front in a provocative manner.

"Yo!" the jinchuriki saluted, "How's it going?"

"Cocky runt," Hidan growled, spinning his sickle in his grip and rounding on the child to face him fully. "Don't think you'll get away from me this time!"

"Oh, I don't intend on running," Naruto exclaimed with a challenging smirk, "You want to fight me?"

"Fight you? I want to fillet you like a motherfucking fish, that's what I want to do!" Hidan snapped, just seconds away from leaping up at the kid and cutting into him with his triple-bladed weapon.

"Well then, if you want me, come and get me," Naruto said, holding up his hand, "The original is waiting for you at the end of the unfinished bridge at the main village. You'd better get there fast, otherwise you'll lose him." He then saluted with the same hand he was gesturing with, which had Hidan glare even harder, "Later." The shadow clone then vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving no trace of his corporal form behind.

Pissed that he had not only been talking with a shadow clone but was taunted by it as well, the sickle wielding assassin turned heel and ran at full sprint for the designated meeting spot. Due to the copious amounts of killing intent he was emitting and the amount of frustration he was expressing at his numerous failed attempts to capture his prey, the possibilities of the kid having a trap lying in wait for him was far out of his mind.

He wasn't exactly the fastest of his group, but he was certainly the most relentless…

"I'm going to kill that little smart-aleck!" Hidan roared, his voice echoing throughout the woods.

OOO

**Several minutes later…**

It was all quiet down at the waterfront, with not a single living soul on the street no matter where you looked or where you turned. It was like a ghost town walking down the village's main road, somewhere you'd expect to be a lot of people.

Sure, it wasn't the busiest village due to the recent problems involving Gato, but there had to be at least _some_ people. What? Did the entire population just up and leave? Or had they been cleared out by somebody?

Hidan didn't seem to care one bit whether there were thousands of people in the area or none at all.

The assassin would have carved a path regardless of the quantity of civilians. Without prior thought or care, the man wielding the sickle stormed down the dirt path and up to the barriers at the entrance to the bridge at the end of the street, sliced his way through it, and began making his way down to the incomplete section of the structure. Since it was just a week or so away from being finished, the current length of the structure was still surprisingly immense. It took the Akatsuki member several minutes to make it to the halfway mark and then some.

When he finally arrived at the spot he was informed his target would be waiting, the man found nothing. Hell, there weren't even any workers. All that was there on that portion of the bridge was a lot of scaffolding, a couple of cranes, equipment, and tons of material deposited all around and being used in the causeway's construction. There was also a massive barrier at its end to prevent unwanted traffic and ferries from trying to access the walk space from the open end that had yet to reach the mainland. For an island nation on the verge of caving in on itself, the amount of effort and funding that must have been put into this was astonishing.

Hidan took a moment of his time to inspect the area, turning on the spot a few times and throwing his arms out. "Somebody is fucking with me." His teeth bit together hard just seconds before he turned to the sky and bellowed out in frustration, "I don't like being fucked with! COME ON!" He slashed his scythe out furiously, "I was promised a fight damn it! How the fuck am I going to make it up to Lord Jashin if I don't have anyone to slaughter?"

This was just a waste of his damn time.

However, just before the man was about to pack it in, a new development suddenly had him stop in his tracks and plant his feet into the ground for the second time that day. Feeling the temperature and winds change, Hidan's eyes cut around when, out of nowhere, he saw a mist creep up on him from over the sides of the bridge. It started off as a thin haze, like the one produced by a fog machine, but this layer of fine fumes slowly turned into a dense cloud.

In a matter of seconds, the Akatsuki member was consumed in a blinding cloud.

Seeing nothing but white and the edges of the bridge sink into the thick as he glanced about, Hidan tightened his grip around his scythe before propping it against his shoulder. The mercenary smirked and breathed a sigh of exhaustion, "Just my luck. Could this day get any fucking worse?"

Looking up, Hidan glanced around again for a moment as the conditions became even worse. Soon, it was impossible to see even two feet in front of him through the mist. No way was anyone going to get work done on the bridge in this mess.

However, this was of no concern to the Akatsuki member at all. What came of concern to him was the sharp stinging in his neck followed by something grazing the bottom of his peripherals.

Eyes widening and a strangled shout suddenly escaping his lips, the cloak wearing man leapt straight to the side as fast as he could, but was too slow to avoid having his neck sliced open.

Blood spraying through the air in the direction the blade had cut and he avoided, Hidan choked up the fluids he was breathing in and skidded to a sudden stop. He hunched over as he slapped his hand over his hemorrhaging throat.

Breathing heavily, Hidan growled angrily as he bit back against the pain, even though the thing that hit him the most was the shock of the sudden attack.

Whatever the hell managed to inflict this wound came in swiftly and silently. He didn't even have the chance to counter since he had no idea it was coming.

While recovering from the silent attack, a very deep, disembodied voice suddenly spoke up from the thick mists surrounding the Akatsuki member, filling Hidan's ears with a haunting tune. _**"Tsk. You're lucky I missed. I could have sworn I hit the jugular and sliced your neck clean open."**_

Hearing this and still slumped over, a pissed off Hidan bit his teeth together tightly before allowing a harsh chuckle to escape his lips. Hand still wrapped tightly around the wound bleeding onto his cloak, he looked up into the fog and sneered. "Oh no, you didn't miss. You were right on the mark, buddy." He slowly brought up his scythe and held it out in front of him, the cable clicking loudly for a second before he slammed the blades into the concrete floor beside him. The assassin then proceeded to rip off a piece of his cloak to wrap it around his neck. "No. The mistake you made was not cutting off my head when you had the chance. Now that I know what you're aiming for and I know that you're here, you'll be lucky to even get a second shot, you fuck."

Hiding deep in the mist, Zabuza's brow furrowed. _"I got him? No way. That can't be right. He's still standing."_ He was probably just messing with him because he _did_ miss and was playing off the injury. Maybe he was trying to throw him off or something. No one could survive having their throat sliced open, unless he only grazed the side and cut into muscle and nothing vital.

He tried to take his head off, but his target picked up on his intention while his blade was going in and avoided. That was good reflexes.

Hidan knew he got to the guy from the silence that prevailed. After securing his neck and making sure the opening was sealed enough to heal by itself the Akatsuki member then ripped his sickle out of the ground and held it up defensively. Wiping his mouth and chin clean of blood, the man's eyes then panned around carefully as he once again began scouting the fog for the enemy that had, in all good conscience, just killed him.

Thank Jashin that he was a follower of that faith, otherwise he would have been dead the moment the attack struck and he wouldn't have even known he'd just been killed.

Now that he knew what was after him though, the white haired mercenary knew exactly what to look for, and tracked the source of the scent on the air back to its source.

…

…

…

It was standing right behind him.

Head snapping over his shoulder, Hidan's grin widened considerably as he swung his scythe around in a swift arc. A loud clang rang out a split second later when his bladed end slammed into something metallic, the grappling match that followed shortly afterwards causing the thing he hit to emerge from the mist.

The area of fog he'd struck pulled back to reveal a large man with a gauze mask wielding a large broadsword standing right behind him. Standing at the same height as Hidan, the masked individual in the dark ensemble squared off with the Akatsuki member, his sharp eyes locking with the mercenary's as his duel-handed grip pushed back against Hidan's own, keeping the three blades of the scythe from driving into his side.

It was a close call that was for sure. A few inches more and he would have gotten skewered.

"Do you think I'm stupid enough to fall for it a second time?" Hidan asked, his grin widening even more so as he pressed his weapon further into the sword blocking him, "Give me some credit here."

Grunting in annoyance, Zabuza used all his strength to push back against the sickle user and threw him off. The Akatsuki member skidded along the ground after being forcefully disengaged and glared up to see the swordsman still standing there, looking at him with killer in his eyes. The sight had Hidan chuckle.

"Nice look. Are you planning on staring me to death? Good luck with that." It was then Hidan blinked out of his confident visage and looked across at the individual more curiously, "By the way, who the hell are you?"

Zabuza clicked his tongue and furrowed his brow at the person he was facing off with.

So this was Kakuzu's partner, Hidan? Though he expected something more in terms of appearances, the fact that he was able to pick up a sneak attack from behind, in the mist and from the same silent approach the swordsman used for damn near all of his kills, supported the statement that you should not judge a book by its cover.

"_Guess that S-Rank classification isn't all for show. This guy might be more trouble than I originally thought,"_ Zabuza murmured in his head, hardening his stare on his confused looking opponent. "Does it matter who I am?"

Hidan huffed and stood up to full height, casually placing a hand on his hip, "I guess not. You're going to be dead in a few minutes anyway, so what's the point." He then tilted his head at the swordsman as he inspected him from a distance. It was then after taking stock of his sword, appearance, use of the mist and headband as a whole, the nuke nin finally clicked on who exactly he was facing, and pointed at the man in surprise. "Wait… aren't you Zabuza what's-his-face?"

"Zabuza Momochi," the missing nin grumbled back, a bit annoyed at how ignorant this guy was. "Yes. I am."

Upon hearing this, Hidan let out a bark of laughter. "So you're the one that Kakuzu has such a hard-on for. Heh, and here I was just looking for some blonde haired brat and a bridge builder's family. This makes it the whole set!" After laughing off his good fortune, Hidan turned to grin menacingly back at the swordsman. "God is smiling on me today. I'm so going to use you for my ceremony." Without a word, he suddenly slammed his left foot on the floor in front of him, before moving it across.

Zabuza watched with a puzzled expression as his target proceeded to draw some strange symbol in the ground with his own blood; a circle with a triangle inside of it. After that the Akatsuki member just stood there with that smug look on his face, grating the nerves of the swordsman a little more as he had no idea what the hell he was doing.

"_It's true what they say then. Everyone in Akatsuki is some kind of freak of nature,"_ Zabuza thought in slight disgust. After sizing up his opponent fully, the Jonin rose back up to full height and backed away into the mist.

Seeing his would-be assailant sink into the white had Hidan baffled. "Oi! What the fuck? Are you just going to cut and run on me? You pussy!" Instead of rushing forward, he watched as his opponent disappeared completely, the fog around him converging on his area again and knocking out his field of vision. This had the white-haired mercenary grit his teeth in frustration and glance around, silence falling over the entire area. "Fucking mist is starting to piss me off. What the hell is this?"

Clearly he'd never encountered somebody who could use a jutsu of this type and scale. Hidan was a close-range fighter and used to overwhelming his opponents with his weapon and ferocity. He just never had to deal with someone who was not only a close-range type but could also use a jutsu to knock out one of his most used senses. It sure as hell annoyed Hidan something fierce that he couldn't fight like he usually did, because his opponent kept disappearing on him in this blanket of fog.

He needed to change the pace of this fight; otherwise he was going to get nowhere.

A grin crossed his expression as he looked around quietly. Even if he didn't have his sight, he had a few other things he could rely on here; one of which just so happened to be the thing that gave away his attacker's intentions on his attempted second attack.

Yanking on the cable up his sleeve, Hidan's grin widened considerably, "You want to play this hide and seek shit with me? Fine! I'll just drive you out!" Spinning low, the silver haired mercenary gave a hard pull on the length of metal attached to his scythe and drew more of it from his cloak.

In a shocking display of finesse, the cable coming from his sleeve suddenly extended in length several times, looping around his form in a protective shield of sorts before he used it to whip his scythe out of his grip and drag the staffed weapon across the air. Spinning on the spot, he threw his weapon outwards in an arc, cutting a circle through the mist across the area of bridge with him acting as the center. The faster he span, the further the weapon at the end of the cable extended outwards.

Eyes widening, Zabuza suddenly leapt backwards through the mist to avoid the windmill of death as the sickle came shooting at him from the side, threatening to cut him down. He skidded to a stop when he dodged the unexpected attack and glared ahead of him.

Hearing the skid and gasp, Hidan's eyes cut in the direction the echo originated from and drew his scythe back in. Catching it in a single grip, he sprinted out towards the area he knew he heard the movement, "Got yah!" He closed in on the silhouette, swinging his weapon back and lashing out with it.

Zabuza countered immediately with his own blade, the massive clever clashing with the scythe's in mid-air with a resounding clang and a shower of sparks. Clearly being the superior in terms of physical strength, the swordsman managed to bat his opponent's weapon away and, continuing on the follow-through with his attack, spun back around for another horizontal slash, this time intending to cut his opponent in half.

Instead of trying to counter the swing due to losing out in the exchange, Hidan expertly back flipped into the air to avoid the second attack. Performing an acrobatic spin, while he was suspended above his foe the Akatsuki member hurled his scythe down at the swordsman like a whip, the three blades cutting towards Zabuza along a dangerous path.

Spotting the incoming attack from above, Zabuza leapt back as well, barely avoiding the sickle when it slammed into the floor and embedded itself. The swordsman skidded to a stop and glared up, where he then saw his opponent drop back down to the ground about fifteen meters away from his weapon, which was still attached to him via the metal band.

"_This guy's got some serious taijutsu and the range he can hit with that thing is ridiculous,"_ Zabuza thought, watching as Hidan yanked his weapon back into his grip. The cable seemed to be attached to some sort of mechanism hidden underneath his cloak that allowed him to extend his range to however long it would allow. That was bloody annoying as far as close-range fighting went, because it allowed him to attack at a distance. _"Not only that, but the angles he can throw that sickle and the path it follows means it's going to be really difficult avoiding him at medium range. Even when he's retracting it he can control its return flight."_

It wasn't just the weapon he had to worry about, but what the hell was up with that circle he painted on the floor before? Sure the guy was screwy, but that was no ordinary pentagram. He drew it with his own blood.

Normally Zabuza wouldn't be worrying this much over an opponent. However, the guy he was currently fighting was an S-Rank rogue ninja from an organization comprised of some of the most dangerous men in the world.

From that smug look on the mercenary's face, Zabuza knew he would need to be extra careful fighting him. The guy had something planned for him, and the swordsman wasn't too keen on finding out what that was.

Hidan grinned, "Not too shabby."

"You're not so bad yourself." The former Kiri ninja raised an eyebrow. "How were you able to survive that last attack? Wait. Scratch that. How were you able to detect my presence the second time? There are only a handful of people in the world who can counter my silent killing technique, so how…" There was the fact that he was squaring off with a high-level opponent. He wouldn't be surprised if his senses were even more finely tuned then the prey he was used to hunting.

The scythe user chuckled, "It's your bloodlust, pal. You reek of killing intent." Hidan then proceeded to wipe his nose cockily, "It's next to impossible for shinobi even with skills of your level to get the drop on me or my partner. We're used to dealing with that sort of shit." Yeah, he was one to talk. After all, he nearly got his own head sliced off and didn't even know it was happening till the sword was about halfway through.

Zabuza grunted. He figured the answer would be something along those lines.

As the name suggests, the silent killing technique is simply a very quiet method of killing an opponent, usually from behind with a blade. Naturally, because the user moves silently, against conventional opponents it cannot be defended against, because the attack cannot be anticipated. In terms of skill, Zabuza was second to none in his use of it, having slain many in the past through use of his mist and blade. However, there were a few exceptions to the rule.

Against opponents of A-Rank level or lower, Zabuza could approach them easily and dispatch them without much effort. But against a person like this guy, someone who was S-Rank classified and strong to boot, even with full use of his _**Kirigakure no Jutsu**_ (Hiding in Mist Technique), he couldn't even begin to attack. The moment he got close a second time, the guy picked up his intent and countered without a second thought. Talk about staying on your toes.

"_Looks like we're going to have to handle this directly,"_ Zabuza thought, digging his blade into the floor next to him and forming a hand seal. It took a lot to get him to throw in the towel. But when confronted by a person who could negate his use of the mist and fight so fluently with him, then a change in approach was needed.

Hidan noticed his sudden hand sign, "Oh? A jutsu?"

"Not exactly," Zabuza replied.

A few seconds later, it was quickly revealed what the swordsman was doing when the fog around them suddenly lifted and the bridge came into full view again. While the sight of the mist dispelling brought a small smirk to Hidan, it was when the pearly white blanket behind Zabuza disappeared that his frown returned.

Standing directly behind the swordsman, side by side in a row, Hidan saw a girl with purple hair wrapped in bandages, an older girl with long black hair wrapped in a white bun, wearing a green battle dress consisting of a pinstriped outfit, haori with white trim and light brown platoon sandals, and the blonde haired brat he'd been chasing the past two days.

It was the latter that really got the man to lose his composure completely, "You!"

Naruto, along with the other people standing alongside him, glared hard at the assailant across from them. "Yeah? What?"

Hidan raised a finger and pointed straight at the boy in orange, "You… I'm killing _you_ first."

While the blonde continued to glare, Zabuza glanced across at the boy interestingly. "Geez. What did you do to piss him off, kid?"

At this question, the jinchuriki gave a sheepish laugh, "Like I said; I dropped a tree on top of him."

"And it hurt like a bitch too, you little bastard!" Hidan snapped, slamming his scythe blades into the ground with a loud crack. The man seethed as he locked the group with his best death glare. "Getting run down by something equivalent to a freight train isn't fun. To top that off, you also tried to drown me. As much as I would like to tear you limb from limb for that shit, I think I would rather offer you up as a sacrifice to Lord Jashin." His grin returned as he started cutting between the four people in front of him with murderous intent. "Oh yes. _All_ of you will be sacrificed."

"Ri~ght," Zabuza exclaimed, a little put off by this man's continued use of the word sacrifice. It was freaky enough he was able to survive having his airway effectively cut open, but the swordsman was not deterred. That aside, he had more pressing matters to attend to, and that was getting a second opinion on who they were up against. He glanced towards his subordinate, "What do you think, Haku?"

The dark-haired girl, now dressed in her full shinobi attire, stared pensively at the man facing them down before speaking. "His preferred method of battle appears to be taijutsu at close-range. But thanks to that modification to his weapon, he can also attack at middle range, so approaching him will be incredibly difficult. He's also got good reflexes and technique, is astonishingly agile, and his timing is spot-on." Her brow furrowed as all of them looked across at the maniacal looking mercenary. "His weapon of choice however is rather unusual."

"Why do you say that?" Naruto asked. He'd seen swords, axes, staffs and sickles before, but the one this guy was wielding was really strange. Three blades? Sure it looked technically menacing, but the blonde couldn't see it being that practical in battle unless you were seriously good at using it.

"It's not a conventional weapon, nor is it light," Haku stated, gesturing towards the weapon in question. "The number of blades it possesses, the material it's made out of and its sheer size means that it must be weighted. I can imagine that it inhibits his attack speed greatly, but not enough to stagger his movements. He's the same as you in terms of wielding a weight-bearing weapon, master. However, it's the primary function of the sickle that's interesting." Haku looked up at Zabuza to see the Jonin was looking across at Hidan more seriously. "Its structure of three blades extends his range, but also decreases its lethality. The increased range and unorthodox design isn't meant to kill… its main intention is to wound."

"I see," Zabuza murmured, looking at the strange scythe again before turning to Hidan. If it was a specific design with a certain function, then it must serve a specific purpose for the man, "All the more reason to avoid it then."

"Yes," Haku nodded.

Hidan grunted while throwing the older girl a disapproving scowl, "Noisy brat. You're next on my list after I deal with your friend."

"Like we're going to give you that chance," Zabuza replied, not even needing to look to know that Haku and Naruto had assumed fighting stances alongside Isaribi. The swordsman also grabbed the blade he had embedded next to him and held it up towards the mercenary. "I'm sorry to say this, but you're going to die here today, pal. That's a promise."

The smirk on Hidan's face couldn't have been any darker, "Give me your best shot." Cocking his sickle out to his side, the Akatsuki member took flight straight towards the group of young shinobi.

Zabuza countered immediately before anybody else could take action, sprinting forward while dragging his massive blade across the ground. Kicking up dust with his speed and etching a long gash across the concrete, the rogue Kiri nin then swung his blade around before slicing upwards, exchanging killer blows with his opponent. Sickle and sword met once again in a shower of sparks, with the force from the swordsman's strike smacking Hidan back a tad, who retaliated with a spin and lashing across with his scythe.

Catching sight of the furious response, Zabuza ducked under it by a hair's breadth and drove his blade upwards, getting Hidan to leap back before dashing around him. Jumping through the air and spinning, the Akatsuki member hurled his weapon across at his opponent, who swayed around it and sprinted to the side, rolling under the cable as it whipped through the air and returned to the user's grip. The swordsman barely avoided it when the sickle made a return pass on him.

Skidding to a stop, Hidan rushed at Zabuza as the swordsman did so in kind.

Before they could cross blades again however, the silver-haired attacker caught wind of an attempt from the side and leapt into the air to avoid a cluster of senbon that shot past the area he was about to cover. Spinning backwards through the air, the Akatsuki member glared down at the bridge to see Zabuza's apprentice moving forward, needles in hand and at the ready.

"Damn bitch," the Akatsuki member cursed, touching ground and sliding backwards to a stop. When he did, he saw Haku switch positions with Isaribi.

Taking the head with Zabuza retreating to let the others throw in a few shots, the purple haired girl focused her chakra through a single hand seal and puffed her cheeks out. _**"Suiton: Taihodan!" **__(Water Release: Large Projectile)_ A split second later, a blast of water was fired from her lips in the form of a powerful stream.

It shot across the bridge towards her target at the speed of a fast flying arrow. Hidan however saw the attack coming and, rolling his eyes, intercepted it with his sickle. He stopped and split the powerful stream with the head of his weapon, the force of it pushing him back a few as the surface of the bridge was drenched in splashes from the deflecting jet of water. When the attack died down, Hidan revealed himself from behind his raised sickle with a smug look on his face.

"Is that all you've got? A hose down?" he asked. "If I wanted a bath, I could have just jumped into the fucking oce-"

"_**Makyo Hyosho!"**__ (Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals)_ Haku's voice echoed over the wind, the teenage girl finishing her single-handed hand seal combination and her eyes focusing on the Akatsuki member standing at distance from them.

Before Hidan could react, a large dome of mirrors formed out of the pools of water around him and froze over. The twenty-one reflective ice panes encircled the baffled mercenary and hovered around him, leaving him to look into all visible angles of his likeness. Naruto, Isaribi and Zabuza then watched as another mirror formed directly next to their nearby companion, who sunk into it and disappeared, only for her appearance to flicker into one of the many mirrors surrounding the startled Hidan.

"Wow," Naruto exclaimed in surprise, looking across at the formation of ice. "That's pretty awesome."

"That's her kekkei genkai, kid," Zabuza stated, glancing over at the blonde to see it become more intense as he focused on the battlefield. "Watch. You're about to witness something few people ever get to see."

From the ice mirror she landed in, Haku glared at the silver haired Akatsuki member with her battle expression in play. It was one of complete calm and collectiveness. "You are now in the heart of my jutsu. You have no way out and no possible way of defending yourself." Senbon appeared in between the fingers of both her hands and she crossed them over her chest, readying herself for battle. "Surrender now."

Hidan smirked when he faced down the girl and took a stance of his own. "You think I'd _surrender_ just because I'm trapped in your little fun-house of mirrors?" He spat on the ground and prepared to charge, "Dream on girlie. The only way you'll be able to beat me is to cut my arms and legs off and kill me, which I highly doubt you'll be able to."

"Very well then," Haku replied in a warning voice. "If you will not concede defeat peacefully, then I will force you to comply and make sure that you never move again." In the blink of an eye, her image suddenly flickered into all twenty-one mirrors encompassing the Akatsuki member. A little caught off guard, the man looked around at all the reflective panes to see every one of the copies cock their hands back with senbon bared. If he was to make an approximate count of the number of senbon being bared at him, it would be somewhere between a fuck-ton and uncountable. "You're finished."

In a flash, Hidan suddenly felt a sting in his shoulder and looked over to see a cut had formed. Before he knew it, every single reflection of the girl in the mirrors surrounding him hurled their senbon at him all at once, peppering him from all sides with a hail of needles. The Akatsuki member attempted to deflect them accordingly with his scythe, but after a few seconds of struggle, he just couldn't hash it anymore, and as a result, his body was cut down by the rain of death.

Naruto and Isaribi watched on in awe as Haku proceeded to attack her opponent mercilessly. From the observing chimera's perspective, all she could see was a shower of needles cascading down on Hidan from all corners of the dome. Naruto on the other hand, his reflexes being far more polished than others, could see what was actually happening as if he were watching the whole thing in a different time frame.

While from the outside it looked like Haku had multiplied herself throughout the mirrors and was attacking with an onslaught of clones. In a way this was true, it was just that the copies of her in the mirrors were just an illusion. The real one was actually moving between the ice panes faster than the human eye could see; something comparable to the speed of light if Naruto had to estimate. That was unreal.

The rate she was moving between them made it look like she was in multiple mirrors at the same time, a level of agility that Naruto hoped he could perfect one day as he watched Hidan crumble under the barrage of senbon.

For the next minute or so Haku continued to attack her target, hitting him from all possible sides and every so often darting past him to clip him with direct attacks before returning to a mirror on the other side. After using up a decent amount of needles rushing between the panes to attack the Akatsuki member, Haku eventually finished her assault by flickering into one of the mirrors up a level and allowing her copies to fade. Glaring down at the center, she saw her opponent was absolutely riddled with senbon.

His back was so covered it made him look like a hedgehog and his limbs, particularly the joint areas, were stuck with blows that would have rendered him completely immobile. The seemingly wounded Hidan stood in place, slumped over with his sickle in hand, swaying from side to side and giving the impression he was about to tip over.

Zabuza, Naruto, Isaribi and even Haku believed that he was done; that their opponent was finally beat.

After a harrowing several minutes of conflict, it seemed that the battle was over.

Unfortunately, this was not to be.

The group froze when they heard a dark chuckle escape the doubled-over Hidan before the man himself straightened up to fool height. Blood dripping down from the corner of his mouth, the assailant cackled madly before glaring up at Haku, who now appeared stunned at his response. "Ahh~h! MAN! What a rush! What an attack! That was totally AWESOME! Shit!" His expression then dulled into one of fury and he stuck his middle finger at the girl, causing her to recoil. "I'm in so much fucking pain right now, you little bitch! God damn it! What the fuck?!"

"_What?"_ the ice user thought in shock. _"W-What's going on…?"_

Zabuza, appearing just as surprised, stepped forward with his hand bringing up his sword. "That attack should have killed him, or at best immobilized him." Surviving that first blow to the neck from the mist was just bare luck. It must have been. A second time from an even greater assault by his student from all sides was impossible. None of her senbon missed. "Why isn't he going down? Haku?!"

The girl looked back over her shoulder at her master, "I don't know, Zabuza-sama."

Growling through bared teeth, the silver haired mercenary grabbed the bunch of needles lodged in his shoulder and ripped them out. His blood splattered across the ground as cluster after cluster, he carelessly began ripping the senbon out of him. He tried to get as much of the ones lodged in his back, but the best he could do was get the ones out of his ass and thighs.

If it was painful having the senbon stuck in him, it was even more painful yanking them out the way he was.

"SON OF A BITCH! What in the name of Hashirama and Madara doggy-styling the Sage of fucking Six Paths was that? Why the fuck do these hurt so much?!" Hidan roared, ripping the last of the ones he could out of his body and stomping forward. He growled up at the bewildered girl in the mirror and jabbed a finger in her direction. "Just for that, I'm killing you right fucking now! Fuck that blonde haired kid! You're dead!"

Haku frowned and drew another set of senbon, the needles flashing into view. _"The number of senbon I hit him with should have disabled his muscles __**and**__ rendered him unconscious. Why didn't it work?"_ Did she miss? No way. Her aim was dead-on. There was no way she could have messed up. Whatever the hell this man was, he certainly wasn't human if he was able to withstand an assault of that caliber. _"If hitting him in the pressure points and targeting his vitals directly doesn't work, then I'll take him apart."_

This man was clearly not someone that should be kept alive. Haku sensed nothing but poison and darkness coming off of him.

Seeing her getting ready for another attack had alarm bells go off in Hidan's head once again. Reacting spontaneously, the man grabbed the cable up his sleeve and pulled. "Oh no you don't! Like hell I'm going to let you do that teleporting shit again!" With a yell and a spin, his cable extended once more and coiled around him, before spreading outwards in a series of violently undulating loops.

Haku blinked in surprise when she saw the steel cable the mercenary had attached to him unravel and spread throughout the airspace around him to such a length. Looking around, the ice user saw that all of her paths to the other mirrors were being blocked by the airborne string, a result that kept her isolated in her current pane.

Not wanting to remain cornered, she prepared to knock the length of metal cable out of the air, only to see her opponent whip his sickle out of his hand and send it sailing off.

Controlling the undulating coils, Hidan growled and hurled his flying scythe straight towards the mirror Haku was in. The teen had a split second to react before the weapon suddenly slammed into her pane from the side at full force and shattered it.

Zabuza knew that his apprentice's ice mirrors could withstand a significant amount of punishment, as he'd seen her use her panels to block fire balls and cushion the blast of explosive tags. However, her mirrors were still susceptible to certain levels of blunt force, which was why she never remained in one mirror for too long and kept moving between them, because her mirrors could still break.

Based on this information, it was safe to say that the swordsman was more than a little shocked when he suddenly saw the sickle literally cut into the mirror his subordinate was isolated in and busted it into a million pieces with one swing. That was one hell of an arm.

Hidan laughed triumphantly at seeing the mirror with the girl in it shatter, before watching Haku's form drop out of one of the larger shards, hit the concrete floor and tumble across the ground painfully. When she rolled to a stop outside of her dome, wounded and knocked senseless from the unexpected blow from the side, the rest of her mirrors dissipated at the loss of concentration.

When the dome melted before his eyes, the S-Rank mercenary huffed in amusement and rose to full height. As soon as he was upright, he sprinted out of the collapsing circle of mirrors and moved straight towards the fallen Haku, who was now struggling to get to her feet. From the speed he traveled at, despite having been hit by such a high number of attacks, he didn't appear damaged in the slightest.

The moment he saw his student get thrown to the floor and her opponent dash towards her, Zabuza reacted instinctively and charged forward with his sword held back. Despite his immediate response, Hidan still arrived at Haku's side first.

Weapon over his shoulder, the hardhearted assassin from Akatsuki took aim at the teen shakily forcing her body up onto all fours. "End of the line, you bitch!"

"_No!"_ Zabuza thought in panic, speeding up.

The back of her head was turned to the Akatsuki member, so there was no way Haku would even see it coming…

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

* * *

**Author's Note:** Another chapter, another battle. Sorry to leave you all hanging there, but I hope you enjoyed it thus far.

Tayuya is held up at the coast, so she won't be able to make it across for a while.

Naruto, Zabuza and Haku have finally taken action. Gato has been captured to be dealt with later. Naruto didn't kill him, as he's going to leave him for the country to deal some much-needed justice. The biggest concern at the moment is taking care of Hidan and Kakuzu, as they are the main problem on this island now.

Still looking for Zabuza's hideout, Kakuzu stumbles upon Orochimaru's instead, and ends up fighting with Kimimaro. Both of them are powerful shinobi, especially Kimimaro. That kid is crazy. But things are really heating up and I'm looking forward to the next chapter.

And Hidan is facing against four opponents. We saw in the series before how stubborn and difficult an opponent he can be, even on his own. He could go toe to toe with Kakashi, who fought toe to toe with Zabuza, and showed impressive taijutsu. Aside from his immortality, this is a big strength for him, and he's also up against Haku, Naruto and Isaribi fighting in tandem.

Hidan's also shown to have good senses too. He was able to pick up Zabuza slicing his head off and respond accordingly before he could lose it completely, which shows his pluck as an S-Rank combatant. This plays on the fact that he and Kakuzu could pick up a sneak attack from Shikamaru before their fight with Team Kakashi and respond quickly. But you still wonder who's going to come out on top in this fight, now that it's boiled down to direct combat.

Also, for all those nitpicking, I just picked up in some translations Hidan's weapon is referred to as a sickle, and in others it's scythe, so I chose to use both, and that blood wouldn't sit right in a mist and would run all over the place, but Hidan can write his mark on grass, so not everything really makes sense. Furthermore, Haku has mentioned that he can travel between his mirrors at the speed of light and is also a part of the technique's description, and I'm not going to argue against it and so will use it every time.


	14. The Executioner

**NARUTO**

_**Drifting**_

_The Executioner_

Just as Zabuza was only seconds out and Hidan was beginning to twist in with a downward strike at the fallen Haku, with all intent to finish her off with a single blow, Naruto acted.

Stepping forward and ahead of a horrified Isaribi, the jinchuriki threw his right forward in a swinging corkscrew overhand.

"_**HIEN!" **__(Flying Swallow)_

The second Naruto let his fist fly, the Akatsuki member was suddenly blindsided and intercepted by something invisible and fast moving.

A tunnel of wind, following a straight path through the air, exploded from Naruto's fist and ripped down the bridge towards Hidan, smashing into him at the speed of a bullet. The force behind it sent his body tumbling violently backwards across the bridge inside a twisting vortex, the sound of a gunshot ringing out all around.

The gale of wind that was its aftershock rippled past Zabuza and got him to stop, the swordsman looking up in bewilderment before glancing behind him to see where the hell that attack had come from. It just flew past his shoulder before he could even reach Haku or his target.

When Haku felt Hidan get knocked back and the winds whip at her own face, the teenager looked to see what had happened. To her left, she saw Naruto over twenty meters away with his fist thrown forward and a triumphant look on his face. To her right, she saw Hidan roll and slide to a stop on all fours, the force of the attack subsiding.

Winded, Hidan's head shot upwards. "What the fuck was that?"

Naruto, stepping forward into an orthodox stance, cocked back his left, "That was _**my**_ attack, you bastard! I won't let you lay a finger on her!" Twisting in, he unloaded a full-power, left straight, "Eat this!" Another bang rang out when he fired off another blast of wind at the currently staggered Hidan.

The Akatsuki member growled and got up, preparing to block with his scythe, only to see the tunnel of wind shooting towards him change course, arc around and slam into him from the side, barreling him off his feet again. From there, all hell was brought down upon the stunned mercenary as hit after hit, Naruto chucked twisting blasts of wind at the stubborn antagonist, all of them either following straight paths towards him, or arcing and bending in completely different directions before converging on their target.

Seeing the blasts of wind rip down the length of bridge one after the other from the side, a surprised Zabuza watched the blonde haired kid stick it to their opponent. Glancing between them, the swordsman could only gawk at the raw display of power the kid was showcasing for them. _"Those are the fastest wind based attacks I've ever seen."_ He watched the blonde smash Hidan into the air with an uppercut thrown from a distance before using another blast of wind to hit him from above and slam him back down into the ground. _"The shots don't follow a linear path either. The direction they travel is dictated by the movement of his punches and come at their target __**after**__ he tries to dodge. That's incredible."_

An attack that could circumvent a guard after the target tries to move and still hit an opponent with full force? That was unheard of.

It certainly did live up to its name though.

_**Hien**_ or Flying Swallow as it was called. The swallow was a bird well known for its sheer speed and sudden directional changes. The kid must have been inspired to name his attack based off of the animal for those very qualities it possessed. The fact that it was wind based as well meant that it fit the description almost perfectly. It sure as hell shook their opponent up something fierce.

Eventually the series of consecutive shots slammed Hidan into the end barrier of the bridge, where the seemingly invincible man crumpled to the ground. Battered from taking so many blows, as indicated by the untidy condition of his cloak and hair, and supporting himself on his weapon and bleeding from the corners of his lips thanks to his mouth being cut up, the Akatsuki member growled furiously and glared in the direction of the opposition.

As agile as he was, he had been unable to dodge any of the attacks that came at him or defend against them successfully. Whenever he tried to move, the blast of wind changed course and hit him the instant afterwards. When he tried to guard with his weapon, the invisible attack would swerve around it and smash him in the chest, limb or head. Not only did each shot come a split second after every punch the kid threw, despite there being thirty meters of distance between them, they were also tracking him.

"_What the hell are these attacks?"_ the Akatsuki member growled. He was absolutely baffled.

OOO

**Meanwhile…**

**Orochimaru's outpost…**

Jumping back, Kakuzu lifted his left arm and blocked a slash from the side as Kimimaro came spiraling at him like a top on the air. Effortlessly matching his momentum with his strength, the Akatsuki member ignored the sparks that flew past him as the boy's steel hard bone blade grazed his diamond hard skin, before shoving him off and kicking out at him.

Reacting instinctively, Kimimaro back-flipped away effortlessly, avoiding the blow that would have otherwise sent him barreling down the corridor and bouncing off of walls. Sliding to a stop and assuming a wide stance, the teen glared back up at his opponent, after which he then sprinted forward once more. Jumping off of the surrounding surfaces of the tunnel in his approach, Kimimaro came flying at Kakuzu upside down, who backed away slowly and effortlessly began blocking his hits with his arms when he spun towards him.

Grunting, the masked man punched out at Kimimaro when he flew at him with a kick, a loud shockwave ringing out and cracking the rocks around them when their attacks collided in mid-air. After which Kakuzu threw the boy off and sent him away, pursuing him to intercept before he could make landfall. Just moments away from having his opponent touch ground, the Akatsuki member lunged at the retreating Kimimaro with a punch, only to have the boy spin sideways to avoid and hike off his forward leg. He then kicked off his chest and face, flipping away as the older and much larger opponent chased him, throwing punches with his blackened fists mixed in with kicks.

Managing to corner Kimimaro against the wall, Kakuzu chopped across at him with his arm, only to see the boy duck under and leap away. The attacker's arm shattered the stone and filled the entire hall in dust. The cloud separated the pair from one another, with the Kaguya putting as much distance between him and his powerful opponent.

When the cloud settled, it revealed a still impassive Kakuzu glaring across at an equally impassive Kimimaro, who was still assumed in a low fighting stance with his bone dagger held firmly in hand. So far, their battle had taken them out of the main lab, where they spent a good portion of their fight demolishing everything in sight, and had now taken them into the main hallways. The labyrinth of a hideout now served as their battleground, with both opponents trying to one up the other in their taijutsu battle.

Unfortunately, things weren't going exactly how either one had planned.

Kakuzu grunted indignantly, "Nice taijutsu. Probably the best I've seen in a while." He held up his left hand and flexed it, testing out the muscles before smirking at his foe. "It's such a shame you're working for a snake like Orochimaru. You would have made a great bounty one day. Such a waste."

Kimimaro stared blankly at the man. "I don't need praise from a man like you."

"No. Of course you don't. After all, you're going to die here today," Kakuzu exclaimed with a smirk. "Not even your steel hard bones will be able to break through my defenses. I had you trumped the moment you decided to engage me."

Furrowing his brow, the white haired boy leaned forward for a run.

However, just before he could lift off, he suddenly felt a tug on his leg and tripped over onto his knee. Eyes widening, Kimimaro looked back to see what had happened. When he locked onto his ankle, he blinked in surprise when he saw a hand protruding out of the ground with clusters of grey, moving threads attached to it, with a bundle of it throbbing rhythmically, like there was a heart attached to it.

It took the Kaguya a moment to realize who the hand actually belonged to.

"_What is this? When did he…?"_ Before he could even ask, Kimimaro thought back to when Kakuzu chopped at the wall and clouded the air in dust. He must have detached his limb in the smokescreen and sent it into the ground, where it then waited for him to make his move.

But… how was he able to detach his own limb?

Before he could figure it out, Kimimaro then remembered he was still in a fight and looked ahead of him just in time to see Kakuzu's fist closing in on his face. He had but a split second to raise both his arms over his face and block the punishing blow that sent him spiraling down the corridor, the impact of which forcing him to lose his bone dagger. He bounced and cart-wheeled down the entire hall like a ragdoll before his body slammed into the back wall and he vanished into another room behind a cloud of dust and debris.

Watching the far barrier cave in under the boy's body, Kakuzu retracted his blackened fist and smirked. "That should have shaken him up a little."

When the wall of dust settled, Kakuzu saw the form of his opponent step out of the rubble. His foe's body covered in dirt and gravel, the Akatsuki member watched as Kimimaro's broken arms snapped back into place and healed themselves, with any other broken bones snapping loudly as they were replaced by new ones.

Upon performing damage control, an unfazed Kimimaro then glared back up with more noticeable fury, as bones began protruding out of different parts of his body. Taking on the appearance of a hedgehog from the number of spikes he was able to produce, the Kaguya locked his best death stare on his adversary, who didn't show a single bit of surprise at his new form.

"That's attractive," Kakuzu commented, raising his right arm and revealing the stump under the sleeve. The hand he had detached from it, which was still in the ground, then extended its threads towards it and grabbed onto his forearm, before pulling the limb back to it. The thumping of the heart hidden within the cluster of tendrils was sucked back into the Akatsuki member's body, at the same time the threads sewed his limb back into place. "But then again, it is your bloodline."

"I do not care for appearances. As long as I am able to defeat Orochimaru-sama's enemies, than that is all I need," Kimimaro replied, before crouching and sprinting down the hallway.

Kakuzu watched the boy rush at him without hesitation. In response, the Akatsuki member extended his left hand and, the forearm expanding, fired his hardened fist straight at the approaching boy, who span around it in a graceful dodge before leaping at him with two long bones extending from his hands.

Intent on impaling the man, Kimimaro lunged at him, only for Kakuzu's right hand to suddenly shoot up at him from his other arm and grab his ankle again. Just as the Kaguya was only inches from spearing his quarry, the Akatsuki member used his extending limb to yank the boy out of the air, away from him, and fling him back down to the ground. Slamming him onto the cave floor with a loud crack, Kakuzu than let out a loud growl before hurling Kimimaro through the side wall, sending him straight through it and into another room.

Withdrawing both his stretched arms, which he was able to do thanks to the properties of his _**Jiongu**_ abilities, Kakuzu smirked towards the new hole he had created. "This hallway really inhibits some of your more impressive moves, and doesn't give you much room to dodge either. Me. I have no problems with it."

"_**Sawarabi no Mai!"**__ (Dance of the Seedling Fern)_

Before Kakuzu could begin undermining his foe even further, massive pillars of bone jutted straight out of the side wall and straight towards him. An alarmed bounty hunter leapt down the hall and out of the way, the space he was standing in crumbling under rubble and being skewered by the massive cluster of white protrusions.

Skidding to a stop, Kakuzu glared up. "Nice trick."

The wall next to him than exploded outwards as Kimimaro came charging straight at him, still covered in spines with a spear of bone in his left hand. Kakuzu threw his right hand up just in time to block the attack when it slammed into him, a loud clang ringing out as the pair reengaged.

"I have more than that hidden up my sleeve, trash," Kimimaro stated, his body trembling as he grappled with the much taller and physically imposing Kakuzu. "I don't care how many of them I have to use. I _will_ defeat you."

The bounty hunter's brow furrowed, as he pushed back against the Kaguya. A low chuckle escaped his lips, "Well then, by all means, show them to me."

They then sprang off of each other as round two to their battle began…

OOO

**Back on the bridge…**

Gripping his scythe tightly through a ringing head, Hidan saw his blonde opponent prepare for another onslaught from the fighting stance he assumed at distance, and let out a yell of anger. "YOU'RE PISSING ME OFF!" He wasn't critically wounded. Only annoyed.

While those wind attacks or whatever the hell they were would have floored a normal, mortal opponent, all they did to him was smack him around like he was a ragdoll. That was just not going to stand with him.

Bellowing out like a wild animal, Hidan charged with his scythe held firmly behind him. "Ready or not, here I come, fucker!"

Seeing the enemy dashing towards them from the end of the bridge, Haku sprang to her feet and retreated to Zabuza's position several meters away, throwing senbon at the berserker while leaping. The swordsman also chucked a barrage of shuriken at the mercenary to provide support for his student, only to see the Akatsuki member smack the projectiles out of the air with his sickle by slashing out in front of him indiscriminately. After knocking away the nuisances, Hidan then made a beeline towards Naruto, who fell back into formation with Zabuza and Haku.

The blonde fired off more _**Hien**_ rounds, only to watch Hidan plow right through them. Sure the ones that hit his body made impact, the man was negating the force of the wind shots with the momentum of his charge, and thanks to his seeming imperviousness to debilitating blows, Naruto realized that he couldn't count on his newly developed technique to hold him off now that he'd decided to go full berserker mode on them rather than dodge like he did at the beginning.

His first use of it had been his only advantage.

Gritting his teeth, Naruto yanked back the sleeve on his right hand and held it out. "Zabuza!" He then threw it forward, a series of loud popping sounds ringing out when he launched several pellets from his gauntlet straight at their opponent.

The pellets he launched were either cut down by Hidan's scythe or they struck him repeatedly. It seemed like a useless attack that only served to irritate the man even further, until every one of the small wrapped up balls, including the ones sliced in half, exploded and clogged the air with thick layers of smoke all around the assailant. The sudden blasts of fumes filling Hidan's eyes and lungs had the rogue ninja coach to a stop. He cut away at the screen furiously while trying to move forward, only to feel tears welling up when he realized they were laced with irritating powders.

"Fuck! Damn you brat and your stupid parlor tricks!" Hidan cursed, eyes almost clenched completely shut from the burning sensation starting to grate at his exposed flesh.

Unable to see, he started chopping away at the smokescreen, only to sense someone over his shoulder and looked back through a squinted gaze in time to see Zabuza emerge from the thick white wall, eyes shut, and spinning his massive sword above his head with one hand. The Kiri shinobi smirked as he swung in with his enormous blade with a fully corked, horizontal slash, an attack Hidan barely managed to block with the pole of his sickle.

The Akatsuki member attempted to take the full force of the blow, but that sword and the momentum behind it was just too awesome. Despite guarding, Hidan was blown clean off his feet and sent flying out of the smoke.

His soles dug into the concrete when he landed and skidded off to the side, at the same time trailing fumes from his body before glaring up towards the dissipating clouds. Before the smoke could even settle, he saw it suddenly break apart and Zabuza come lunging straight towards him with his sword held over his shoulder.

Telegraphing the swing, Hidan responded by spinning his weapon and hurling it in a curved throw at the Jonin, who ducked under it and attempted to slash his target in half. When the scythe hit the ground some ways behind the swordsman, Hidan gave a sharp pull on his cable and, kicking off the ground at the same time, yanked himself towards his own weapon, flying right over Zabuza's slash and causing the swordsman to miss him by a hair.

Flipping through the air towards the sickle, Hidan yanked it out of the ground while airborne and expertly hurled it at the nearby Naruto, who jumped out of the way in time to watch it embed the space he was once standing. When Hidan landed and gripped the cable, he was immediately set upon by Haku coming around from behind, hand seal formed with water gathering around her in her run.

"_**Messatsu Suisho!"**__ (Flight of the Obliterating Water)_ The water gathering in the air formed into thick, solid icicle like spears. They surrounded Hidan in an arc before converging on him at high speed.

Spotting the incoming assault, Hidan ducked and spiraled out of the way of the frozen water bombardment that, instead of ripping him to shreds, tore up the ground and sent chunks of debris flying everywhere. While dodging, Hidan pulled his sickle towards him and, spinning like a top upside down through the air, flung it across at Haku in a counter. The teen flipped over it when it came at her horizontally, watching it pass an inch or so under her, seconds before Hidan landed and pulled it back towards his hand.

Catching it, the mercenary turned fast clockwise just in time to see Isaribi rushing at him from down low. She ducked under him toward his right while he was still rotating and attempted to nail him with a spearing blow with her uncovered arm, which had suddenly developed scales and morphed into a large, webbed claw. Alarmed, instead of timing a counter that he wouldn't have been able to manage, Hidan kicked off the ground and flipped right over the girl, allowing her strike to pass right under him. She ultimately missed with her attack.

It was then while he was suspended above her that the Akatsuki member swung to cut into the girl while she was directly under him, only to be stopped when he spotted Naruto flying right at him immediately after Isaribi with a side kick.

Hidan chose to slash at the boy instead, cutting him clean in half and bringing a grin to his face. His glee disappeared however when the bisected jinchuriki went up in a puff of white smoke and three more Narutos came flying through the cloud. The trio all sent either a punch or a kick at the man, a barrage the Akatsuki had to quickly counter.

The combo forced the man to guard with his arm, weapon and knee, before he was sent blasting back by the collective momentum of all three copies ramming into him. Sliding to a stop along the concrete, Hidan tilted up to see a platoon of blonde doppelgangers running circles around him, keeping him dead center and converging on his position, before being shortly joined by Zabuza charging through the entourage. The Jonin yelled as he swung out at Hidan, watching the mercenary leap out of the way and counter with his scythe, swinging it at him at the exact same time he dodged.

Zabuza ducked under the counter, spun his sword expertly before lashing out in an attempt to slice his opponent in two. Both experienced shinobi began trading dangerous attacks with each other at close range in the center of Naruto's shadow clone formations, with Hidan continually leaping out of reach to hit with one of his more unorthodox attacks, only to have his opponent close in and keep him from landing those attacks.

While his scythe was knocked up, Zabuza came in low with a wild hit, his body spinning towards Hidan. The silver haired mercenary leapt clean over the following blow _and_ his opponent's shoulder, trailing his scythe behind him that he aimed to decapitate his adversary as he passed. As expected the blow hit the low going swordsman through the neck and took his head clean off his shoulders, a sight that filled Hidan with hope that he'd finally managed to kill one of the bastards.

But the frozen body of a beheaded Zabuza suddenly transformed into a body of water that hit the ground with a loud splash.

"Oh come on!" Hidan shouted, rounding on the Naruto copies that suddenly came rushing in at him, "How many of you fuckers are going to use those cheap-ass clone techniques?! Fight like you've got a pair!" Twirling his sickle above his head, he then began viciously cutting down the onslaught of shadow clones wave after wave as they came at him randomly.

Despite Naruto's best efforts to confuse the man with elaborate formations and having dozens of his copies attack continuously from all sides, the S-Rank level rogue ninja mowed through his platoons in droves. He cut them down before they even had a chance to get within a few feet of him, showing that filling up a battlefield with targets wasn't really helping them any. This became apparent after the fiftieth clone was dispatched by the sickle wielding maniac, and a whole squad of them was wiped out when they tried to doggy-pile him, but failed.

"_With that fighting style combined with his speed and aggressiveness, he can take on all of my clones attacking him at once,"_ the original Naruto thought amongst his copies running circles around the man, making careful observations as he sent in several more. He tried strategizing and using odd formations to throw the man off, but every attempt he tried the guy would just jump out of the way and cut down his doppelgangers effortlessly. Even mixing in throwing weapons was doing him no good. _"While all four of us attacking him at once can negate his unorthodox maneuvers and shut down his speed, this guy is still ridiculous to fight. Since numbers aren't working at close range and going at him one after another is useless, how about long range?"_

Deciding to get smart, the remaining clones all backed off and began throwing shuriken. The barrage of knives from all sides forced Hidan to back off as he expertly knocked all of the weapons out of the air in a furious retreat. Haku and Isaribi joined the formation of shadow clones in attacking the enemy, with both girls forming whatever hand seals they required before launching their own attacks at the target to join the masses of metal being hurled his way.

"_**Sensatsu Suisho!"**__ (Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death)_ Haku summoned a wall of water needles from the ground and sent them at the defensive Hidan.

"_**Suiton: Teppodama!"**__ (Water Release: Gunshot)_ Cheeks puffing, Isaribi fired off consecutively shots of water from her mouth.

The combined attacks of the shadow clones firing Hien and throwing shuriken, along with Haku's water needles and Isaribi's liquid bullet shots peppered Hidan mercilessly. After smacking away every attack he could with his scythe, he was soon overwhelmed by the sheer amount of projectiles, which hammered away at his body before blasting him off his feet. He was sent tumbling towards the end of the bridge again. Upon traveling some ways under the shit storm the kids were putting him under, Hidan then slammed his feet into the concrete to stop from going any further and glared up through a soaked visage, riddled with weaponry.

After throwing over a hundred rounds at him, the three teens stepped back as Zabuza appeared in front of them. Already flying through a shitload of hand seals, the swordsman smirked when he finished on bird and willed the chakra of his next technique to life. At this point in time it was impossible to ignore the crashing of waves from the ocean under the bridge.

"_**Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu!"**__ (Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique)_ The moment he said that, the water from one side of the structure suddenly rose into the sky in the form of an almighty pillar. That pillar twisted and undulated violently before taking the form of a massive, snake-like dragon, which gave a tremendous roar before rocketing down towards the battered Hidan.

Spotting the massive attack incoming, the sickle wielder smirked and stood up. "So you've got a water dragon? Big whoop! Bring it on, motherfucker!" Hidan bellowed, swinging his scythe back before attacking the mythical creature composed of liquid when it came within reach.

He cut into the raging torrent sure, but that massive body of water wouldn't stop from just one hit. The massive dragon smashed into the Akatsuki member with concussive force before blasting him over the side of the bridge in the form of a wave. This downpour then crashed into the ocean, slamming whoever it had twisting around inside the mass into the channel. The shockwaves it created from hitting the surface of the strait battered the bridge and sent a cloud of moisture upwards, something that did not go missed by Zabuza, Naruto, and a slightly winded Haku and Isaribi arriving at the guard railings to look down over the side.

All of them were getting pretty exhausted from hammering this guy with everything they had. While Zabuza and Naruto were confident they can carry on despite the efforts, Haku and Isaribi were starting to look a little worse for wear.

After a minute passed watching the raging waters below die, a frown came to Naruto's face when he felt a familiar presence hit him.

"Are you kidding me?" the jinchuriki asked. "He's still not dead yet?" Can this guy even be killed? What the hell.

Zabuza looked up at him, "You can sense him? Where is he?"

"Under the water," Isaribi said, jumping on top of the railing and grabbing the gauze around her. At first Zabuza and Haku were puzzled by what she was doing, but when they saw her form grow a bit and green scales appear all over her, they quickly understood why. Their eyes widened when they saw the new girl grow fish like appendages and develop more amphibious qualities when she assumed her Kaima form, something neither of them expected to see. Her sudden transformation meant the rest of the bandages wrapped around her were ripped away and cast onto the wind. "Don't worry. I've got him."

"Be careful, Isaribi," Naruto said, looking over at her with concern. "That guy's relentless. Don't let him get you with his scythe."

The girl smiled assuredly at the boy. "Don't worry. He can't hurt me in this form," Isaribi stated, tapping her skin for emphasis. "These scales of mine are as hard as steel and are coated with slippery mucus to prevent scarring. Blades can't pierce it."

Despite how cool that sounded, Naruto still felt the need to be cautious. Their opponent was alive and kicking, even after being bombarded by a blitz of attacks and having tons of water dropped on top of him with the force of a tidal wave behind it. No one should have survived that, but battling Hidan was proving to be one massive contradiction for all of them.

"Just watch yourself. Okay," Naruto said.

Nodding, the fully transformed Isaribi then dove over the side of the bridge and into the water.

A ways out from the bridge, bubbles on the surface of the ocean heralded the resurfacing of Hidan. The Akatsuki coughed and choked as he pulled himself out of the water, retching up the amount of ocean he'd swallowed before spitting out some blood. While he was cleaner now than he was before being thrown over the side, his cloak was torn on the right side and practically ruined, leaving him with only one good half still intact.

He didn't care much for his state of dress though. What he was most focused on was the irritating bunch he was stuck fighting.

"Damn those bastards! They act like fucking pussies and keep attacking me from a distance where I can't touch them." Even though he couldn't be killed, the amount of attacks he was receiving from the four of them was starting to grind on him. Clenching his fist around the handle of his weapon and standing up to full height on top of the water, Hidan turned to face the bridge about a couple hundred meters away and looked up. Eyes locking onto the figures he could see standing at the side, he raised an eyebrow. "Hmm… weren't their four of th-WAH!"

Before he could mount any sort of defense, the ocean surface in front of him burst upwards and a humanoid sized creature suddenly lunged at him, fangs and claws bared. The growling creature tackled the man with the force of a torpedo and dragged him straight into the water once more, dropping them over twenty meters down before swimming away.

Baring his teeth, Hidan attempted to swipe at the animal with his scythe when it released its hold of him. However, due to the weight and size of his weapon, and thanks to being completely submerged under water, his movements were as slow as an old man's. As a result he ended up missing the entity when it swam away, disappearing into the darkness below and leaving the Akatsuki floundering.

Searching for the animal, Hidan figured he should probably head back to the surface and attack it from there where he was most effective, only to have his plan cut short when he spotted a shadow coming from behind and turned. He wasn't fast enough to respond to it however, as he was slammed in the side by what he first thought was a sail fish, and sent spiraling through the water.

The damn thing was fucking fast.

Blowing bubbles in an inaudible cry of pain, Hidan turned again to try and spot the creature. Seconds later, he was hit again from the side with a blow that cut into him and sent him spinning once again. Winded, the mercenary attempted to lock onto the speedy critter until he was hit from behind a third time, blowing whatever air he had left out of his lungs and leaving him practically dead in the water.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it, he was pretty incapable of dying. Hell, he wasn't even able to drown. What this basically meant was his waterlogged body was floating there, underwater, being attacked by something he couldn't even keep up with.

After being hit a few more times, the light-headed Hidan spun a circle and followed the fast moving fish as it looped around. When it stopped to float out of reach of him, the man's eyes widened when he realized he'd seen this thing before.

Despite having sea creature like qualities now, Hidan had no doubt in his mind that this thing attacking him in the depths of the channel was that purple haired brat in bandages. She was wearing the same clothing and had the same body shape and reflective features. Though distorted now thanks to her transformation, Hidan could see that this entity was her. No question.

But as staggering as this new piece of information was, the Akatsuki member wasn't going to let this get to him. He had to get out of the ocean before he became actual fish food. Plus he was getting tired of getting the shit kicked out of him underwater.

However, before he could start to surface again, Isaribi came at him again and pulled him further under, spinning him, lashing at him with her webbed claws and kicking him. After that she broke off again, pulling away till she was a little deeper. When she caught full sight of the man looking back at her, clearly annoyed at this beating, her cheeks puffed up and she fired a powerful jet of bubbles at him.

This jet turned out to be another powerful stream of water that crashed into Hidan and sent him rocketing back to the surface. When he flew out of the ocean, he let out a yell of shock as the blast sent him tumbling across the waves before he skidded to a stop. Spewing out the water in his lungs, the man glared up and took his scythe into a two-handed grip. "Alright you freak! The moment you surface, I'm going to shave the scales off your face!" His senses then jolted back to life when he heard the sounds of approaching footsteps and looked behind him to see Zabuza Momochi dashing in his direction.

Blade trailing behind him and carving a gash in the water, the swordsman swung _Kubikiribōchō_ upwards at his adversary, who ducked clean under the blow. Spinning in a counter, Hidan attempted to slice into his opponent's side, but Zabuza backed up, spinning his sword around to stab. The silver haired assassin expertly swayed around the motion and returned with his triple-bladed scythe, a loud clang ringing out when their weapons clashed.

Throwing Hidan off of him, Zabuza then lunged with a downward strike, only to have the Akatsuki member cartwheel over him and, upon landing directly behind him, slashed at him with his sickle. The swordsman turned just in time to have the staff like weapon damn near split him in two at the waist. A second after though, the two halves of his body fell into the ocean in the form of water, pissing Hidan off at missing his mark again, only to jump out of the way an instant later to avoid the series of senbon that came at him out of nowhere.

Looking across, he saw Haku appear from an ice mirror floating above the water and throw more senbon at him. The Akatsuki member batted the first barrage out of the air and blocked the rest with his arm. He growled angrily and ripped the pins from his limb before charging at the ice user, corking his weapon and dragging it across the surface of the ocean much like Zabuza had before.

"Die for me!" He lunged at her, only to be intercepted by Zabuza himself jumping straight out of the water directly in front of him and slamming his titanic blade into his scythe.

The sickle user was pushed back across the waves, a grappling match ensuing between the two powerful shinobi. In order to gain leverage, Zabuza lifted his foot and kicked against the back of his sword. His clever smashed into Hidan's guard and forced him away, with the Kiri ninja lunging with another horizontal slash, only to miss when the agile fighter leapt in a quick retreat.

Hurling his cabled weapon at the swordsman, Hidan expressed extreme displeasure when it was knocked out of the air by consecutive water shots from a surfacing Isaribi, who then fired another stream of water at him. Dodging it, the silver haired killer grumbled. "You know, I'm getting sick and tired of this buddy-system you have going on with each other. Why don't you come at me one at a time instead of hiding behind each other like pussies?" He landed safely and glared in frustration.

Zabuza strode forward and held his blade up, a smirk crossing his face, "Because we're not stupid enough to take you on alone. Though I can put up a tough fight, you're not an easy opponent to deal with. I think the kids are doing well so far." Damn. It was like they rehearsed this fight. The way Haku, Naruto and Isaribi worked in tandem with one another and dodged this guy was brilliant.

Guess dangerous situations really did force you to become more in sync with one another.

Hidan grinned back, "That sounds like coward talk. Why don't you show me that you actually have a pair and take me on alone? Come on."

Before anyone could say anything back in response to Hidan's taunts, the sound of something fast approaching and a shadow out of the corner of his eye caught the assassin's attention. Eyes widening, the mercenary acrobatically leapt out of the path of a metal beam that suddenly came flying at him from behind. The massive piece of construction equipment speared the water with an almighty splash, surprising the three people on the ocean and Hidan when he landed several meters out of reach of the resulting ripples.

"God damn it! What the hell is it this time?" Eyes shooting up, Hidan locked onto the bridge some distance away. When he did, he saw the blonde haired kid had produced a whole platoon of shadow clones, all of whom were positioning construction material along the safety railing and, from the looks of it, were taking aim at him?

The original Naruto grinned as he conducted firing drills, watching his copies hold the material and machinery steady while several of them stood behind the lined equipment and readied themselves for action. Raising his hand, the jinchuriki then dropped it, "FIRE!"

One after the other, his shadow clones slammed their hands into the backs of the beams, bags and pieces of wood they had lined up. Immediately upon each hand making contact, simultaneous _**Jet Hand**_ ejection points sent the material blasting towards Hidan, who the collection of doppelgangers could see standing perfectly out in the middle of the water. Due to the fact that Naruto couldn't water walk yet and with the opportunity presented to him to raise hell, he began a devastating bombardment of their enemy.

Hidan skillfully started avoiding the rain of bridge supplies coming down on top of him. Dodging left and right acrobatically, the scythe wielding assailant set his sights on the structure and advanced on it. One after the other he avoided the hail of material, getting closer toward his blonde haired attacker while at the same time putting distance between himself and the others behind him.

Seeing Hidan making his way towards Naruto had everyone react defensively. Zabuza and Isaribi started back to the bridge as well, pursuing Hidan, while Haku produced an ice mirror beside her and sunk into it, after which the pane dissipated on the wind.

Avoiding the worst of the deadly storm of construction equipment, including the cement mixer hurled at him, Hidan then leapt straight up towards the causeway. Due to the sheer size of the structure and seeing how high the walkway was positioned above the ocean, the jump the Akatsuki member made was incredible. In the blink of an eye, he was back up on top of the bridge and staring down Naruto's legion of clones menacingly.

"Do you think it's funny throwing shit at people?" Hidan asked with a murderous grin. "Well, let's see you try and laugh while I'm playing your lungs like an accordion, you blonde-haired little prick!"

Twirling his sickle, the man charged at them and the original, who he assumed was positioned at the rear. The shadow clones sprang at him and attempted to counter with a cover of _**Hien**_ shots, but Hidan merely lashed out at his attackers with reckless abandon, cutting through the swath of copies and plowing through the wind attacks like they were nothing. Upon slicing through the platoon, he then cut through the smoke they left hanging behind and lunged at the original, who stepped back with his arms hanging at his sides and primed for close-combat.

However, just before Hidan could get to him, a cold sensation fell over both when an ice mirror suddenly appeared in the air beside Naruto. In the blink of an eye, Haku flickered in front of the jinchuriki and blocked the swing thrown by the Akatsuki member with a clang, her senbon stopping the scythe dead.

Avoiding the deadly blades, Haku remained suspended in front of the irate looking Hidan before spinning and attempting to kick. The man swayed back to avoid, before back-flipping across the bridge to put space between himself and the two kids.

Hidan frowned when he eventually stopped, watching as Zabuza and Isaribi returned to the fray and formed a row alongside the other two, the latter having reverted back to her human form. "You bastards are trying my patience. I thought that this was going to be an easy fight and you assholes would just roll over for me. But you're giving me a harder time than I expected." He then straightened up and tapped his scythe against his exposed shoulder. After a few thoughtful taps, he then grinned mischievously and slammed the blades into the ground in front of him, "Particularly that purple haired runt with the scales."

Isaribi blinked when she realized she was being addressed, which had Naruto and Haku glance back at her briefly.

Seeing the group momentarily refer to the one in question, the silver haired Akatsuki member then allowed a more roguish smirk to cross his lips. He wasn't getting anywhere taking hits from these kids at long range. He wanted to change that… and take a little back for himself at the same time.

"It sucks ass getting your ass beat around under water. I didn't know a human being could swim like that or hold their breath for that long," Hidan exclaimed, but then lifted his head a bit to essentially look down at his opponents. "But you're far from human, aren't you, girl?" He saw the teen look up at him in surprise, a sight that spurred him on. "You're not even close to one. Hell, I don't even know what to call you! You have slivers and scales all over you like you've got the fucking plague. Looking like that, wrapped up in bandages, I wouldn't be surprised if everyone moved to the other side of the street when you passed them by. I would. You're a freak of nature!"

Eyes shimmering and body beginning to tremble, Isaribi felt Hidan's words hit her like a blade to the heart. Hearing the revolting taunts himself, Naruto looked at his friend worryingly to see her starting to shake as memories of her past and experiences with the outside world were brought back to her full force, as did Haku and Zabuza.

Hidan laughed at the girl's reaction and carried on boldly. "This is just too hilarious. You're just a disease-ridden, disgusting monster trying to pass herself off as a normal villager. Even in your human form you still look like a walking abomination. Something like you, a thing that nobody wants to be near or wants anything to do with, shouldn't even exist."

Dropping to her knees, Isaribi suddenly had tears running down from her eyes as her hands reached up to cover her face. Naruto immediately rushed over to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders to comfort her. He could feel how much she was quivering, which angered him beyond belief because Hidan was still throwing insults at her.

"Don't listen to him," the jinchuriki whispered, giving Isaribi a warm gaze as the traumatized girl turned his way. "He's wrong…"

Hidan tilted his head with a look of feigned interest, "You think she's disgusting too, don't you blondie?"

Gritting his teeth, Naruto snapped at him, "SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH, YOU BASTARD!"

"Why? All I'm preaching to you heathens is the truth," the silver haired man replied with a smug expression on his face as he cut towards Zabuza, "A weak missing ninja who can't even fight for himself, and needs to rely on kids and monsters for help. That's just pathetic. You're even worse than the walking freak show." He then looked across at Haku, who had taken immediate offense to the man attacking her master verbally. "And your little cum-dumpster isn't any better. I'm astonished you haven't thrown her useless piece of ass away yet. I mean… that's all she is to you, right? Just a tool meant to be used up and then thrown away when she isn't able to satisfy you anymore? Tell me I'm wrong?"

Zabuza's eyes narrowed in blind fury as his hand clenched like a vice around his sword's handle. His other fist, which wasn't wrapped around anything, tightened so much he drew blood. The rest of the kids were looking back at Hidan with varying levels of disgust, outrage, and anger, just like the Jonin next to them.

Continuing on audaciously, Hidan gave his final assessment on the lot of them. "What a riot. All of you losers are so dependent on other people, it's almost laughable. In the end that's all you're really good for. The swordsman was used by his village, his ice-wielding slave is used by him, and the girl who I'm guessing was made into the freak that she is… all of you are just tools with pitiful skills." His grin spread as he looked across at the group arrogantly. "All of you were just made to be _**used**_."

Silence fell following Hidan's rant.

As everyone glared across at the Akatsuki member a still shell-shocked Isaribi suddenly felt Naruto stand up and walk forward. Zabuza and Haku saw the kid march up front, and though they could only see the sides of his face, they could see the anger burning in his eyes.

His own fists clenched into fists, the boy seethed, as was the entity inhabiting his body, who'd chosen to remain silent up until this point.

After hearing what Hidan had to say, the Kyuubi could only say one thing return.

"_**Kid…"**_

"Yeah?"

"_**Tear this guy apart,"**_ the fox spoke, his voice level but still carrying enough anger behind it that it was almost palpable.

And that's all that needed to be said.

Before Hidan could even react, he saw the blonde haired kid standing twenty meters away from him suddenly disappear in an orange blur, a split second before a small fist impacted against his face and practically caved it in. The force behind it sent the Akatsuki member blasting backwards and tumbling violently down the bridge. When he eventually stopped on all fours, the man looked up in surprise with blood dripping from both his nose and mouth.

"Huh?" the Akatsuki member unintelligently exclaimed, his shocked eyes looking up to see what the hell just hit him.

When his attention landed on Naruto standing in the spot he had previously been standing with his fist outstretched, Hidan saw the boy was covered in a poisonous orange aura. It wasn't an ordinary chakra aura either. On second glance, it was chakra that had taken the form of a radiating cloak giving off heat waves and bubbles almost reminiscent of flames, a sight that had the silver haired man gawking as he'd never seen anything like it before.

To accompany the orange glow wrapped around the kid, the blonde also had what looked like ear shapes protruding from the head of the cloak, and two large tails made of the same chakra whipping behind him.

After looking the brat over and locking eyes with the boy, Hidan then saw that the youngster's previous blue irises had turned red with black slits. To top it off, his spiky hair had become wilder, and his human features had become more feral and animalistic, including sharper whiskers, fangs in his teeth, and sharpened nails.

The sight was fucking terrifying, something that had even Zabuza, Haku and Isaribi reeling.

The swordsman formerly of the hidden mist could feel the amount of chakra the boy was emitting as well as the presence he now possessed. The sensation he got from it was almost suffocating. _"What is this? What the heck's going on?"_ Blinking in astonishment, he then narrowed his eyes further as he tried to remember where exactly he'd seen something like this before. Memories of his services back in _Kirigakure_ eventually culminated in an answer, which had the man recoil in shock._ "Wait! Don't tell me…!"_

He'd seen this before in both the previous containers of the three and six-tailed beasts…

"N-Naruto-kun," Isaribi whispered in shock, placing her hands over her mouth in disbelief as her despair brought on by the Akatsuki member's vile tongue dissipated completely. _"What's happening to him?"_ Looking over, the purple haired girl could see that both Zabuza and Haku were equally shocked at this development.

About a minute after everyone had finished processing the new look Naruto was now sporting, Hidan had also managed to recover enough to finish taking in his opponent's sudden transformation, seconds before his mind cut back to memories of his group and the meetings he'd attended with them. While it took longer than everybody else there for him to fully comprehend the seriousness of his situation, he was eventually able to figure out why this terrifying new sight felt so familiar to him. It occurred to him not too long after he'd started pondering over the little details of it when he began to stand back up.

His mind was floundering in astonishment by the time he managed to push himself to his feet. "Whoa, whoa, hold on! Y-You're… a jinchuriki?!" What the hell! So this was one of those tailed beast containers that his group was after?

Son of a bitch.

Unfortunately, he had no time to curse his luck out when Naruto suddenly vanished from sight in an orange haze, indicating the path he was traveling. A split second later, Hidan was smashed in the side by something small and fast moving, blasting him across the bridge in another direction before he was knocked back the way he came and smacked tumbling onto his ass.

Again and again Hidan was struck repeatedly by his now even faster adversary, who was now darting around at a speed he just wasn't able to keep up with. Not in his current state. Due to the fact that he hadn't been aware he'd been fighting a jinchuriki this entire time, the mercenary's mind and body just wasn't ready for the level of speed and ferocity the boy suddenly brought out onto the field. Sure, if he'd known exactly what he was dealing with he would have been more prepared and would have been able to counter his attacks accordingly, but the fact that the kid's transformation was so sudden and that it took so long for him to realize exactly who his opponent was, Hidan just wasn't in the right frame of mind to adequately respond when he was suddenly blasted into the sky by a killer uppercut from his chakra coated opponent.

Dropped on all fours and letting out a growl as he watched his target fly straight up from his last attack, Naruto bellowed out in rage and blurred out of focus again before rocketing after his foe. Appearing several dozen stories above the bridge and above his still climbing adversary, the glowing Naruto linked his hands above his head, which extended into two large chakra arms that mimicked his actions perfectly, before he rammed both his fists down on top of the stunned Hidan.

The Akatsuki member plummeted back towards the bridge's walkway at the speed of a bullet, slamming into the ground with such force the blast of debris, rubble and dust that flew into the air looked like a landmine going off. When the smoke cleared, it revealed a crater several meters across in diameter in the center of the bridge with a dazed Hidan sprawled out in the middle of it. His scythe, which had previously been held tightly in his grip, had flown out and was lying a few yards away from him, the cable still linking them together.

Dripping blood from his mouth, the wincing man opened his eyes just in time to see Naruto's descending form drop down right on top of him with a killer knee to his stomach. The driving blow caused blood to fly from Hidan's mouth, before he was mercilessly pounded into the ground by the blonde's fists.

Zabuza, Haku and Isaribi could only watch in shock as their enraged companion mercilessly and violently drilled their adversary into the bridge with a continuous string of blows that would have pulverized a hill. They were only grateful that the bridge was so sturdy otherwise, judging from the shockwaves ringing out with every hit, the whole thing would have collapsed into the ocean by now.

Eventually, after a minute of pinning the man under him and pretty much burying him with an uncountable number of furious attacks, a still Kyuubified Naruto eventually withdrew and leapt out of the crater. Skidding to a stop not too far from the others, the panting, two-tailed form of the jinchuriki caught his breath, before standing up to full height and allowing his transformation to subside.

The orange chakra that had previously enveloped him bled back into his body and dissipated, his features slowly returning to normal.

Panting with sweat pouring from him, Naruto watched and waited to see if the bastard would get up again. So far the guy had been stabbed, clubbed, beaten, body-slammed, drowned repeatedly, and battered to the point his bones should have been pulverized, and had gotten up after every single wave unfazed. The jinchuriki was expecting, no, _knew_ their enemy was going to get up again if his resilience so far had shown them anything.

However, when nothing happened for the next five minutes or so, and the blonde was still waiting for a response, Naruto was suddenly startled out of his reverie by a hand being placed upon his shoulder. Looking across, he saw Zabuza staring down at him with a level and collected expression, something the youngster was able to identify in his eyes.

"It's over," the masked ninja said, patting him reassuringly.

Hearing this and then glancing over to see Haku and Isaribi standing beside him and giving him warm looks, the winded Naruto then returned to focusing on his recovery. Coming down from the shock and high of the moment, the jinchuriki took in a few deep, needed breaths before straightening up. Together, the four of them cautiously made their way over to the crater.

Picking spots around it, the odd squad looked into the center of the huge indent in the ground to see that their opponent had practically been cremated in the assault he had been subjected to. On top of being virtually crushed, in his transformed state Naruto was able to drill him into the cement to the point most of his body was buried, save for his left hand, which was still sticking out of the ground.

Kneeling down beside the arm, ignoring the cable beside him, Zabuza pressed his fingers to the wrist and checked for a pulse. After a moment and nothing, the swordsman stood back up and sighed in relief. "He's gone. There's no way he's getting up after that." Nodding, he glanced up at Naruto across from him and smirked, "Nice one, kid. That was a hell of a beat down you gave him."

The jinchuriki returned the compliment with a small smile. "Thanks… but…" He looked back down at the crater and frowned, an expression of dread coming over him when he held his hands up and checked them. From his bloody, bruised knuckles to his palms, he could still feel the sensations of his previous state reverberating through them like vibrations through a piece of metal, and the deed he'd actually done when he'd allowed his anger to run loose. He didn't know how to describe what he felt and what he did. It had simply been overwhelming. "That… was the first time… I just lost it. Normally I'm more levelheaded then that… but…" The kid bit his bottom lip and made a tight fist. "He just… he just kept insulting everyone, mocking everyone and ridiculing us. I just… I just couldn't stand it."

Inside his mind, a familiar voice spoke up. _**"Sorry about that, kid. Going two tails for the first time must have been a real shock."**_ Due to his own anger, the Kyuubi had pumped way more chakra than he expected into the kid to give him that extra boost to kill his opponent. He didn't know why he did it, he just did.

Maybe because the words that that Hidan used to insult all of them had been the exact same words that _**that**_ man spoke to him all those years ago before taking control of him.

You could say the fox just wanted to get a little back for himself this time… and let off a little steam in the process.

In the end, he was satisfied.

"Hey. Don't worry about it," Zabuza exclaimed, getting Naruto to look up at him again and see his smirk. "I wanted to tear him apart myself for what he said about me. That bastard had it coming."

Blinking, Naruto then looked to the side when he felt a hand rest on his arm and saw Isaribi beaming at him with shimmering eyes. Due to the fact that he practically stepped in to defend her honor and to protect her from the mercenary's abuse, it wasn't surprising that she was showing him her thanks in this way.

Isaribi took his hand and squeezed it, whispering a 'thank you' before releasing him. The blonde acknowledged her show of gratitude and looked over at Haku, who also beamed at him.

After a momentary silence, Naruto's eyes cut back to the center of the crater. "Well… at least it's over now."

Just as the group was beginning to feel at ease, a twitch of the finger from the partially buried hand had Naruto and everyone else suddenly look at it. For a brief instant nothing happened, and the four figured they were probably just hallucinating.

However, before either of them could react, the hand suddenly came to life and grabbed the cable, which began reeling in at high speed.

Stunned, Zabuza looked at the cable retreating into the ground for but a moment before remembering exactly what it was attached to and spun around. When he turned, he saw the sickle lift off the ground and shoot straight towards him, its blades leveling with his neck to take his head.

The swordsman only had a split second to react before he was forced to sway out of the way, two of the three blades slicing across his cheek directly under his eye and drawing blood.

"Damn it!"

The cable whipped around the surrounding four and knocked into Haku and Isaribi, but when Naruto blocked with his arm it shaved across his hand and drew blood.

Caught off guard, the group sprang out of the crater and away when the scythe landed in the open hand. A shocked Naruto, Haku, Isaribi and Zabuza took up positions a good distance from the hole, where the weapon's coils couldn't reach them.

The instant they stopped and stared, the crater they had previously been inside blasted upwards in a shower of debris. A moment later, Hidan, having taken the worst beating anyone had ever seen done to a human being before, rose up like a zombie from the concrete with a holler and a laugh.

"I was waiting for one of you bastards to slip up! Now I got two!" the man roared. Grinning madly at the stunned shinobi, he then sprang into the air and retreated further to the unfinished end of the bridge. It was there he quickly stopped and slid into the blood circle he'd drawn safely out of reach of attack at the beginning of the fight, and positioned himself firmly in its center.

Shit. They'd completely forgotten he drew that. What the hell was he doing now?

Despite looking a bit grungy with a few cuts and bruises, and having most of his outfit torn up, Hidan was still alive and well. This baffled the four people facing him off, as they honestly thought they'd killed him. The most shocked out of all of them was Zabuza, because he'd actually checked for his pulse and there had been none. From the amount of hits he'd taken from Naruto and watching him practically get flattened under enlarged chakra fists, the guy should have died.

"How… the hell is he still alive?" Zabuza asked, wiping away the blood on his cheek. He remembered the cut and swore under his breath. _"Shit. Now what?"_

Isaribi was horrified, "W-What is he? Is he… immortal?"

Naruto shook his head in disbelief, "I honestly don't know." He rubbed the wound on his hand until the Kyuubi's healing ability sealed it, the fox in question also expressing surprise at the development.

Bringing his scythe up, Hidan smirked in satisfaction at the blood he could see dripping off of it and the cable. Chuckling, he glanced briefly towards the four meddlesome shinobi he was fighting, watching them back up in response when they thought he was going to attack. However, the move he had planned for them wasn't anything he was going to hurl at random

No. He had something a lot sweeter planned for them.

"Let's get to the fun part!" Hidan exclaimed, licking the red fluid off of the tips of the blades.

Haku and everybody else was stunned to see someone actually ingest blood. Though most of them there had seen and drawn blood before in the past, never in their entire careers had they ever thought about drinking blood. The moments they couldn't help it were when the blood came from their own bodies and it was coming from their own mouths. Those times were practically unavoidable.

This man however was going out of his way to intentionally drink someone else's blood; both the blood on the scythe's blades and the cable he had attached to it.

So basically they were fighting against someone who was not only insane, but was practically unkillable and bloodthirsty… literally.

Was he even human?

Their belief in that fact was only supported when they saw the man's skin change to black with white markings appearing all over him, giving him the appearance of a skeleton. If they weren't shaken before they were definitely shaken now when they watched the assailant grin, embed his scythe into the ground next to him, and draw an extendable pike from his cloak.

"_**Jujutsu: Shiji Hyouketsu!"**__ (Curse Technique: Death Controlling Possessed Blood)_ Hidan exclaimed, his murderous gaze falling on the group. "This is perfect. I can't wait to see how you fuckers react to my next trick! It's a real kicker."

Snapping out of it at hearing the man speak, the group immediately got defensive.

Not willing to wait around to see what he will do, Zabuza slapped his hands together and began flying through hand seals. Haku, Naruto and Isaribi put space between each other and watched the Jonin finish up. "If my last attack didn't work, then I'll crush him with this one!" the swordsman shouted, ending on bird. As soon as he did, water began rising up quickly from both sides of the bridge and came to gather behind him. A ring quickly formed from the mass of ocean, which began to spin violently, signaling the incoming of an awesome jutsu. _**"Suiton: Daibakufu no-"**_

"Too slow!" Hidan exclaimed, driving the pike he was wielding straight through his own leg, right through a nerve bundle.

While everyone was shocked to see their opponent attack himself, out of all of them, Zabuza and Naruto were the most shocked when the pair suddenly felt a searing pain in their legs and they both dropped to the ground. The swordsman didn't even have time to fire his damn jutsu when he dropped, the water that had been gathering behind him falling to the floor and forming a pool over the entire area.

Haku and Isaribi looked across at the two boys in bewilderment, where they then unexpectedly saw blood beginning to dribble out of their left leg and into the water on the floor.

Gripping his limb, Zabuza glared up at Hidan. "W-What… What just…"

"Gah!" Naruto shouted, his hands applying pressure to the wound as he looked down at it in confusion. "The hell?"

"It hurts, doesn't it?" Hidan cackled, grinding the pike in through his leg and eliciting shouts from his two victims, both of whom clutched their stinging legs even tighter. Getting the desired response from them, the assailant then yanked the pike out and held it up, watching as his own blood dripped from the weapon. "The pain, the suffering, the confusion… don't you think it's fantastic?" The man then positioned the pike over his stomach and, without a blink of hesitation, shoved it straight through him. "How about this?!"

Zabuza and Naruto's eyes widened as bolts of pain shot through them and they keeled over onto their hands and knees, bodies shaking as they kept themselves from falling flat over.

"Zabuza-sama!" Haku shouted.

"Naruto-kun!" Isaribi also shouted.

The two girls rushed to the aid of the shinobi writhing in agony.

The ice user wrapped her arms around her teacher and pulled the Jonin up, looking him over. "What's wrong? What's happening?" Haku was then stunned into silence when she saw blood dripping out of his shirt and onto the floor from what looked to be a wound in his stomach. How he received it though was beyond her.

Looking across, she saw Isaribi was hovering over Naruto and checking his own stomach just as she was her master's. The exact same injury that Zabuza was afflicted with was also on the boy's stomach. But how come?

Their opponent was standing way outside of their range and wasn't throwing anything at them. He was just stabbing himself.

So what the heck was happening to them?

Through pained eyes, Zabuza looked up towards their foe, "I-It's him." His growl got the others to glance towards Hidan, where they saw him yank the pike out and hold it above his left arm, which he extended. "Son of a bitch… it has to be!"

Confused, Haku stood to full height and glared at their opponent, analyzing his current position.

So far the Akatsuki member had stabbed himself in the leg and stomach, the exact same spots Zabuza and Naruto had just taken damage. Quickly, the ice user examined the situation and took into account everything that had occurred thus far.

One; their opponent drew a circle of blood at the beginning of the fight. He didn't use it at all throughout most of the battle until he managed to niche Zabuza across the cheek and Naruto across the back of the hand. Two; he moved to the circle the moment he drew blood from his opponents and ingested it. Three; he changed forms and began attacking himself inside the circle, with each wound he was making to himself reflecting back on the swordsman and the jinchuriki, both of whom he got the blood fr-

Haku's eyes widened when she figured out what was going on and rushed forward, drawing senbon from her robe and throwing them. She needed to get this man to stop attacking himself or get him out of the circle to sever the link. If she could do that, then she could save Zabuza and Naruto.

However, the moment her senbon peppered the silver haired man in the chest and legs, stopping him from stabbing his arm, not only did he not move, but Zabuza suddenly curled over in agony and gripped the areas afflicted. Naruto responded to the onslaught as well, except he managed to stay upright through a combination of stubbornness and grit. A stunned Haku looked back at her battle damaged master and friend with wide eyes, her brain processing at light speed why they'd suddenly doubled-over before quickly getting her answer.

"No!" she shouted, looking back at Hidan to see him grinning madly in her direction. "It's not just himself! Even if _we_ attack him inside that circle…!" Then both him and the victims would receive the damage, with the former being the better off out of the two parties.

Hidan had proven to all of them that he was resistant to all forms of damage that had the potential to cripple or maim. Not only could he dodge serious injury, but he could also survive the worst punishments imaginable and come out relatively unscathed. This made him like some sort of living, breathing human doll that could take hits to the body and keep on coming, no matter what you tried to him. On its own that was a scary thought.

However, he had now subjugated himself to a ritualistic technique that effectively transformed him into a person akin to a voodoo mannequin. Since he could stand through any attack thrown at him, he could stab and attack himself freely inside of his circle without cause for concern. But while _he_ could survive any attacks targeting the vital areas of the body, other people probably could not.

Biting back the pain, Naruto growled and forced himself upright. Ignoring the blood coating his front and dripping down his leg, he staggered forward and fired off a _**Hien**_ round at the Akatsuki member. His attack ripped towards its target with intent to knock him off his feet and out of the circle. Shockingly enough however, when it slammed into Hidan, not only did it fail to budge him from his spot just as Haku's attack did, but the damage he received came back on both him and Zabuza.

The blonde staggered back and spit up blood, while the Jonin on his hands and knees ripped away his mask and choked it out.

The jinchuriki growled and snapped back towards their smirking foe, "I can't move him! How did he…" Eyes widening, he looked towards Hidan's feet. "Shit! He's sticking to the ground with chakra!"

"Now that I know how your attack works, I can use it against you!" Hidan laughed uproariously. "Not having fun anymore? Good! Because I'm having a ball over here!" Regaling in the group's struggles, the man stabbed himself in the arm, before bringing his pike out in front of him and beginning to slash and stab at his midsection deeply and repeatedly. "Take this! And this! AND THIS!"

Zabuza curled up on the ground holding his bleeding stomach in agony, growling and yelling against every bolt of pain that washed over him before glaring angrily at the man. Naruto dropped to his knee and stopped himself from falling, his shoulders being taken by Isaribi, now starting to panic.

Balling his fists, the swordsman slammed them into the ground and attempted to force himself up, but his body was taking so much damage right now it was impossible for him. He could feel his insides caving and his life flickering out with every bolt of pain that went coursing through him. The damage he took and the blood he was no losing…

Shit… at this rate…

"Y-You bastard!"

Hidan smirked when he heard the curse thrown his way, drawing his pike back and holding it above his right pectoral. After a moment of pause, he drove it straight through his lung, causing Zabuza to bend forward and choke up more bodily fluids.

Naruto did the same, but instead of falling flat on his face, bit his teeth together through vein red eyes and forced his body up. Letting out a strangled scream, he stumbled forward off of Isaribi, where he was quickly caught by Haku and both turned to glare at their attacker.

The Akatsuki member tormenting the two males kept the spear where it was rooted and chuckled, "This is my mercy. Enjoy it while it lasts dickheads, because it will all be over shortly."

Hearing this, Haku looked at the man in alarm. "No!" She knew what that must have meant and turned towards the others in desperation, feeling Naruto move off of her and stand by himself. "Naruto! He's going for the heart!"

Winded and still taking serious damage, Naruto wiped the blood from his mouth and staggered forward. Despite bleeding heavily through his jacket, he was beyond giving up at this point.

This fucker was toying with them. That was something the jinchuriki was not going to let slide.

"LIKE HELL HE IS!" Naruto shouted.

He had to die!

"_**Brat! I can heal the injuries you've already taken to your body but in your condition you won't survive a direct shot to the heart!"**_ the Kyuubi's voice shouted at him from inside. _**"You have to stop him!"**_

"_I know!"_ the blonde yelled back. But how?

The distance between them was too great and the guy had them completely at his mercy. If they tried to approach him he would stab himself through the heart and end the fight. They needed a long range technique, one that could get him out of that God damn circle! If they used the wrong one they would damage themselves, and Naruto's _Hien_ just wasn't cutting it anymore now that the guy was resisting them.

What the hell were they going to do? They were out of options.

Feeling he'd left the four in traumatic suspense long enough, Hidan brought his pike out and levitated it above the area where his heart was. Seeing Haku and Isaribi's horrified expressions had his grin widen as he drew back for the final blow.

"Well kids… we had fun," Hidan exclaimed cockily before giving them a courteous nod. "But now… let's share the pain of death together!" Just as he was rearing back for a piercing shot through his own chest, he suddenly stopped when he remembered something important. _"Wait. Shit... weren't we supposed to catch these tailed beast things alive?"_

Yeah. That's right. The leader said that to all of them specifically. They needed to bring the jinchuriki in alive.

Damn, and he was still connected to the kid. What the hell was he going to do now?

Before he could think up a solution, all of a sudden a massive pillar of water shot up beside the bridge from the ocean below. The sight of the massive tower distracted Hidan long enough to watch the undulating mass suddenly warp and twist, before taking the shape of a massive dragon. The creature composed entirely of sea water let out a roar as it suspended itself high above the Akatsuki member, who looked at it in surprise before cutting towards his four opponents.

There, on the ground, he saw Zabuza had a hand seal formed and was glaring at him through intense eyes. In spite of the pain he was in, he was able to bite through it and muster enough strength to use a jutsu, which he had trained on Hidan and ready to run him down.

Clicking his tongue, Hidan pulled the pike away from his heart and held it above his left arm. "Fucking smart ass! You think you can still act cool in your position! HUH?! Well FUCK YOU!" He drove the spear through his limb, causing Zabuza's arm to go dead and drop, which effectively dispelled his technique.

The giant water dragon hovering above Hidan dropped like a dead weight back towards the ocean, crashing across the bridge and soaking the entire area. Having been standing directly underneath it, the white haired assailant glared straight ahead of him while feeling the water fall on top of him, after which he then continued to stare while giving the situation a moment of pause, before he pulled the pike out from his arm and smirked.

"Not so cool now, huh?" the Akatsuki member taunted. "After all that effort, you fucked up."

A harsh laugh came from the exhausted Zabuza as he glared back at the man again through a pained expression. In spite of all of his serious internal injuries, he was still able to chuckle through them and mess with his opponent. "What makes you think I fucked up?"

Puzzled, Hidan looked down at himself.

It was then, looking down at his feet, he realized what had happened. Eyes widening, the silver haired assassin saw that, while the water dragon bullet technique failed in taking him out, when the user lost his hold on it and it dropped to the bridge, it ended up flooding the entire walk space. On top of that, not only did the floor get soaked, but the symbol he'd drawn in blood had been washed away.

All he was standing in now was shallow water, which had him panic. "No! My ritual!"

Breathing raggedly, Zabuza clenched his fists and reeled forward with what strength he had left, "NOW'S YOUR CHANCE! GET HIM!"

Not needing to be told twice as they had seen the whole thing for themselves, Haku and the grievously wounded Naruto exploded into action and charged straight towards their foe as fast as they could. In spite of his injuries, the jinchuriki led the charge with everything he had. "HAKU! We need to take him together while he's stationary! I'll block his first shot and create an opening! Use that to take out his weapon!"

"Right!"

Side by side, the pair dashed towards the assailant in a blur, intent on defeating him before he had the chance to regain his bearings.

Despite him having a clear physical and taijutsu advantage over them, they didn't care what it took to beat him as long as they put him down for good. As to how exactly, they didn't know. They'd tried drowning him, stabbing him, attacking his vital organs and crushing him. What haven't they tried yet to get rid of the son of a bitch?

In the middle of their high speed sprint, Naruto looked up towards the sky. Thinking about it for a moment, he then said to hell with it…

Seeing the kids approaching him, crisscrossing along their path to confuse him, Hidan let out a growl and yanked his primary weapon out of the ground, intent on cutting them down as soon as they got within reach. "Damn you, you stupid rats! JUST DIE ALREADY!"

Naruto and Haku advanced on the powerful shinobi, both with their respective weapons drawn and corked back. Together, they let out a tremendous war cry as they closed the final distance on the Akatsuki member and moved in for the kill.

Hidan struck! Naruto lunged forward and deflected the descending scythe with a mighty upward swing of his kunai, sending the triple-bladed weapon back into the air. While the enemy was staggered, Haku rushed in and threw a hail of senbon at his body, legs, arm and weapon, smacking it several times and forcing him to let go of it and throw it out of reach. The cable also fell under the assault of lightning fast ice needles, which slipped into the flexible gaps and broke it at the base of the handle, effectively severing his connection to it.

Stumbling backwards from the furious combination, Hidan tried to retreat, but was unable to evade using his acrobatics due to the senbon buried in his knees. With their opponent effectively grounded, Haku and Naruto switched places for a third time. The blonde swung around his partner and threw his corked right hand forward, plowing it straight into Hidan's chest.

"_**JET HAND**_, MOTHERFUCKER!" Naruto roared in anger, forcing himself past the damage racking his body and the searing pain that came with it.

All of a sudden, the ejection point Naruto slammed into Hidan's sternum blasted into life. The gale winds the attack sent started whipping around both of them from the impact point, ripping up the concrete floor, sending dust flying, and cutting everywhere in all directions. It was like a vortex compacted to the size of a fist had opened up on the Akatsuki member's chest, drilling into him with forces a hundred times stronger than Naruto's normal attack.

The power behind it was so great that Haku, Zabuza and Isaribi had to hold their ground as winds tore across the bridge all the way to the end of it.

In the midst of the chaotic storm, Hidan let out a scream of terror while Naruto bellowed at the top of his lungs, his eyes flickering between blue and red, before his body suddenly became shrouded in a potent orange glow. Seconds later, the blonde sent the man flying.

Blasting down the bridge like he was fired out of a cannon, the Akatsuki member flew straight through the barricade wall, across the channel, and across the coast moments before his trajectory changed course and he was sent rocketing skywards while gradually gaining altitude. Everyone who had braced themselves under the storm of wind that hit them from Naruto's attack striking Hidan flush in the chest looked up and watched in shock as their foe was sent clear over the horizon in one of the best pitches they'd ever seen.

The technique had so much power behind it and was moving so fast; the mercenary actually left a vapor trail as he shot off at an exponential rate.

OOO

**Meanwhile…**

Across the channel in one of the small ports controlled by Gato, Tayuya could be seen standing atop a ruined building glaring down at the mass of bodies she'd recently laid strewn across the various floors and platforms.

Twirling her flute between her fingers, the red head smirked when she saw Swift fly up from one of the unconscious thugs to land on her shoulder. The bird had helped her in driving the swaths of troops down below crazy, getting them to chase her around the area, which made the young swallow perfect bait for the kunoichi to use her flute music to lull them into a powerful genjutsu. After hypnotizing a majority of the mercenaries, she then proceeded to clobber each and every one of them, being merciful enough to put some of them to sleep with her tunes so she had less of them to fight.

That didn't mean their transition from conscious to unconscious was pleasant. Oh no. The genjutsu she'd given all of them had been one nasty piece of work. Definitely something that would require months of therapy.

This was clear from the stunned looks on a lot of her comatose foes drooling or frothing at the mouths respectively, and blabbering endlessly about giant monsters eating them and bugs crawling into their bodies.

"Yeah, you guys are going to be in la-la land for a lo~ong time. Enjoy," Tayuya exclaimed, catching her flute in her hand while glancing across at her bird teammate. "Pretty cool, huh?" When the swallow whistled, the red head giggled. "What can I say? It's what I do best."

Just before Tayuya could make any plans on what to do with the dozens of brutes she'd managed to put down, a blast of wind suddenly hit her in the back of the head followed by the distinct echo of the sound barrier being broken. Caught off guard, the red head spun around and glanced towards the massive bridge she could see just several hundred meters away. Locking onto it, the kunoichi then watched as a high speed trail of smoke lifted off from the structure like it was a ramp, before blasting into the sky away from the island.

The stunned kunoichi and the bird on her shoulder followed the trail of vapor as it shot over the horizon like a rocket, watching it until it vanished over the line above the treetops before turning to face the island completely.

Only one person they knew could use a technique like that.

Who else could propel objects at high speed trailing fumes and defying all the laws of physics?

"Naruto-kun," Tayuya murmured, frowning deeply and holstering her flute. Swift hopped off of her shoulder to hover beside her. "Let's go!" The red head then jumped down from the building and ran for the docks.

That thing that blasted off from the bridge was no ordinary object. That was a person.

If Naruto was forced to use that much power to send a living being, a _person_, into the atmosphere, then that wasn't a good thing.

OOO

Screaming at the top of his lungs, Hidan was unable to stop himself no matter what he tried as he broke the sound barrier several times, broke through several different cloud formations, before soon entering the altostratus level. Due to the G-forces impacting him, he could barely move properly as he was whipped and spun around like a mannequin in a blender, watching the _Land of Fire _beneath him pass him by at an alarming rate.

It was unreal.

"THAT FUCKING BRAT! I SWEAR, WHEN I GET OFF OF THIS THING, I WILL FUCKING MURDER HIM! FUCK! JASHIN WILL SMITE YOU FOR THIS, YOU SON OF A BITCH! GAA~AH!" He didn't care anymore whether that kid was a jinchuriki or not. As soon as he stopped, he was going to hunt him down and kill him.

The man cried and swore profusely as he observed any notable feature of land below disappear in an unreadable blur as he passed through more clouds.

In his long, one hour journey across the continent at whatever ridiculous speed he was moving at, Hidan's body was subjected to the harshest conditions humanly possible. He was ravaged by high winds, starved of oxygen, and at some point, his body got soaked from all the clouds he was pushed through. Due to his consciousness remaining intact, he was able to see and experience everything that came after that to the point he suddenly passed into an area where he was slowly able to make out the distinct features of white and snowfall.

Perplexed when he felt the temperature drop like a stone, Hidan had only a few seconds of more flight time to try and work out where he was exactly, till all of a sudden his view of the world turned blood red, seconds before his vision went black.

Due to the fact he had been traveling at such high speed _backwards_, the mercenary had been unable to see he had wound up in the mountain ranges somewhere in the northern parts of the country, where his body was then, without warning, slammed straight into the side of one of the massive peaks. The blast of rubble, debris and snow outwards on impact was big enough…

The fact that he went _splat_ against it like a bug under a fly swatter on a windowsill was another.

For however many number of minutes that went by after that, Hidan saw nothing but black. Eventually, his eyes eventually recovered whatever sight he'd lost and blinked open to kiss the sunlight that was able to reach him up there. Once his vision completely cleared up, a grin spread across the silver haired man's lips as he realized he'd finally stopped.

"Yeah? YEAH? Is it over? HA! YES! About fucking time! Woo! What a rush! Motherfucker, I don't think anyone has ever moved that fast before!" Clearly he had chosen to forget about the Fourth Hokage and Raikage, but he couldn't give a shit about them right now. He'd finally landed and that meant he could get back to killing people again. "Shit… I shouldn't have held my ground against that kid's fucking wind attacks. I should have just dodged and fucking cut them all to pieces. This time… this time I'll do it right. I… wait… why do I taste blood?"

A whole lot of blood. Man. He must have hit the ground harder than he thought.

"And why can't I feel my legs… or my arms… or my hands?" Confused, the man looked down to see what was going on and figure out why he couldn't move. It took him a few moments of glaring through the snow for him to discover that not only had he formed a massive crater in the ground where he crashed, but his body had splattered and quartered itself.

Hidan's eyes bugged out of his head when, from his head's position at one end of the crater, he saw his arm lying several feet from him, his leg a few feet from that, a pool of blood staining the snow, and his torso lying at the other side of the hole in a crumpled heap. He had no idea where the other parts were. "WHAT THE…?!"

Yep. At the speed he had been traveling at, when he hit the side of the mountain, not only did he hit it at full speed, he also went straight into bedrock.

"SON OF A BITCH! WHAT THE HELL! How the fuck am I going to put myself back together now! KAKUZU!" The man screamed out, his voice echoing through the mountains however many thousands of meters up he was. Unfortunately for him, his partner was nowhere even near where he was, which was really bad. "KAKUZU~UUU!"

His voice echoed through the foggy, sub-zero mountain ranges and into the distance, reverberating off of every wall and cliff.

This was his big mistake, as once Hidan's disembodied voice died out, the severed head stopped when he heard the sound of rumbling and looked up. When he did, he saw a wall of ice and snow charging straight towards him from the mountain further up the side. When it got close enough for him to see it and the shaking in the ground grew to a level he could easily feel, Hidan's eyes bugged out again when he realized what he had done.

"Fuck me." His last curse died under the tremendous sound of a rushing storm when the avalanche hit him and swept him away, burying him under tons of ice in the middle of uncharted territory.

It would not be too long till the collapsing sheet of snow settled down. When it did, it left a mountainside completely devoid of life, due to the fact that it had not only scattered whatever remains of Hidan there were, but had buried him under hundreds of feet of snow and ice, which was where he would stay forever.

It was over for him…

OOO

**Elsewhere…**

Having lived close to a hundred years now from the days of the First Hokage, you could say that Kakuzu was a man of experience. He'd seen and heard of almost everything major and minor in the world in the numerous decades he had been around, and the amount of knowledge on top of the skills he'd accumulated during that period was irrefutable. You could even go so far as to say that there was nothing out there that he hadn't seen before and that there were very few things that could surprise him.

Anything that could, he would refer to as just one of those days, he figured.

This just happened to be one of them.

At the beginning of this fight with Orochimaru's subordinate, Kakuzu started off confidently. With his claim over the five main affinities and the abilities granted to him by his _**Jiongu**_ _(Earth Grudge Fear) _threads, he figured he had this one in the bag. Since he'd done battle with several Kaguya in the past and came out on top through the same means he'd enhanced upon in the past fifty years every time, he figured that Kimimaro would just be another pig lined up for slaughter.

But then the battle between them started, the two fighters engaged, and things started to go pear shaped for the bounty hunter real quickly. It wasn't that he was in any kind of danger. Oh no. It was just that the situation to follow started to become troublesome.

The Kaguya were well known for their aggressive fighting style and savage battle tactics. For those that had come into possession of their rare kekkei genkai _**Shikotsumyaku**_ _(Dead Bone Pulse),_ this enhanced their abilities to perform several times over, granting them flexibility, strength, power and speed an ordinary human wouldn't be capable of. The last person Kakuzu fought with these abilities was a really powerful individual, able to incase herself in armor and forge swords of bone. She had an impressive fighting style and decent strength, something Kakuzu was able to circumvent and carve through her.

Kimimaro had inherited these exact same abilities, which Kakuzu thought would make for another easy and predictable battle. Unfortunately, the boy had also inherited a lot more than just bloodline ability. He was also ridiculously sharp and his reflexes were absurd. On top of that, he was incredibly talented, able to bust out moves and techniques on the fly like he'd rehearsed it thousands of times in the past. This became apparent when Kakuzu attempted to corner him, and he just slipped away.

He wasn't too shabby in the close combat area either. With that bone dagger in his grasp and his hand-to-hand combat skills, he was able to trade blows evenly with the bounty hunter, and even run circles around him for a bit.

After getting a decent gauge of his opponent's abilities, Kakuzu started to take him more seriously, as did the youngster. Following a vicious exchange through the underground base, Kimimaro took it up a notch by producing bones from his entire body and went after the man like a spinning top. Using only his _**Doton: Domu**__ (Earth Release: Earth Spear)_, incasing certain parts of his body in black, Kakuzu came to blows with the young man again, reducing entire hallways to rubble and collapsing rooms on them. Eventually Kimimaro was forced to activate the Cursed Seal of Earth on his chest, transforming his entire body to look like a dinosaur.

This was where the battle really started to get interesting, and in the ensuing chaos, the entire base was blasted from the cliff and into the ocean.

Through use of his fire release technique _**Katon: Zukokku **__(Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work)_, Kakuzu ripped the entire facility apart and assaulted his opponent mercilessly. When the structure caved in on itself and was left a smoking, unrecognizable heap, the man leapt out of the aftermath and back out onto open ground.

Grungy from unintentionally burying himself, with his cloak dirt ridden and shredded from his battle with his opponent, most notably the missing sleeve on his right and the tattered hem at the bottom, the masked shinobi glared down at what used to be Orochimaru's research lab. The section of island it resided in was nothing but a crater of large slabs of rubble and debris now, with smoke rising out of it due to the explosions that had occurred inside.

This ruined section led all the way down to the beach, where Kakuzu could see clear out across the ocean. After inspecting his handiwork, he grunted and massaged his neck.

"What a pain. I never expected the runt to transform into a lizard and start leveling the place," Kakuzu thought off-handedly before lowering his arm back down to his side. "Next time I'll finish the battle quickly and not waste time. That was just a needless expense of chakra."

Turning heel, the man prepared to march out of there, only to stop when he saw the ground several meters in front of him explode upwards and several large bone structures began jutting out of it.

"_**Sawarabi no Mai!"**__ (Dance of the Seedling Fern)_

Kakuzu watched with interest as dozens more bones penetrated the surface before stopping. Several seconds later, the familiar form of Kimimaro came sliding out of one of the protrusions at the front, currently transformed in a partial Level 2 state, with half of his body normal, while the other half of his skin was dark brown and demonic in appearance, with thick bones sticking out from that side of his back like sails. After stepping onto the ground, looking a little roughed up but relatively unharmed, the boy held his transformed right arm up and produced a large quantity of bone from it. The white blades twisted and wrapped around his limb till he'd produced something akin to a drill, which had Kakuzu raise an eyebrow.

"_**Tessenka no Mai: Hana,"**__ (Dance of the Clematis: Flower)_ Kimimaro said, cocking the massive construct of bone back threateningly while locking his best death glare with the Akatsuki member. "You think you can destroy my master's precious facility and just walk away?"

"Yes," Kakuzu shrugged carelessly. Technically it was Kimimaro that started going wild and forced the bounty hunter to start fighting more recklessly. He figured that half of it was partially his fault as well.

"You are mistaken," Kimimaro replied with a deepening frown. "I will not have you intrude on our soil and sully it with your filthy presence. Trash like you must be disposed of accordingly, and I am just the person best suited for the job." He lowered himself into a wide stance, his one yellow eye hardening on the man standing in his sights. "Prepare to meet your maker."

After hearing Kimimaro's blatant declaration to defeat him, Kakuzu breathed a sigh of annoyance before raising his right hand. When he did, the stitching around his arm unraveled and, in a show of his own freakish capabilities, an immense amount of threads burst out and wrapped around his hand. When they formed a mass of metal like a club, two of his masks appeared at the tip with their chins touching; the fire mask and the wind mask. While the Kaguya flinched at the sudden change in his opponent's limb, to Kakuzu it was just a normal occurrence.

"Normally I wouldn't use these to such an extent, but you're really trying my patience, boy," Kakuzu replied, his glare darkening as he lowered his morphed arm. "I'll be sure to finish you with this next attack."

Frowning, Kimimaro crouched and prepared for a lunge. But before either foe could move to engage for a possibly fifth round, a sudden flash of chakra on the wind stopped them dead, and the pair's eyes turned towards the tree line. Looking towards the tops of the trees, the two shinobi saw a vapor trail high up in the sky arcing towards the horizon of the mainland, with the source of it moving at an extremely high speed up into the altocumulus level.

It was unusual to see such a formation in the sky and even stranger that they were able to sense such a phenomenon.

Puzzled, Kakuzu squinted to try and gauge what the hell he was looking at, figuring it to be just some strange cloud formation. When his gaze locked onto the fast moving object way off in the distance, his eyes widened somewhat in surprise when he realized that it was a person.

It wasn't just any person either. Who else wore black and would make such a flashy performance to let everyone know that it was him. What's more, it also looked like he was in deep shit, something that had Kakuzu completely forget about his squabble with Kimimaro as well as his hunt, and focus on the new issue at hand.

"_Damn it, Hidan,"_ the masked mercenary growled, his brow furrowing irritably. _"I give you a simple job to do and you screw it up. Now you're __**really**__ going to die."_ And he was absolutely serious on that note. The trajectory of his airborne opponent far off in the distance was dangerous. If he ascended any higher than that than the chances of him returning to earth in one piece and NOT scattering across the land was zero. Groaning in exasperation, the man turned back to Kimimaro, "We're done here."

"No. Just you," the Kaguya replied, dashing forward before leaping into the air. The massive bone drill in his right cocked back as he descended upon his foe, all intentions set to impale the man with his strongest attack.

However, just before he could get into striking distance of him, Kakuzu pointed his transformed limb straight up at the youngster, and the mouths of the two masks opened. _**"Jiongu: Saishu Shageki!"**__ (Earth Grudge Fear: Final Shot)_ The flecks of fire and wind that appeared at the mouths of his masks suddenly warped together, before blasting outwards in the form of a raging tornado of flames.

A stunned Kimimaro still in mid-descent was engulfed in the enormous blast that filled the air with an attack the size of an actual hurricane. The flames incinerated trees and lit up the sky in a dazzling display of destruction. The person on the receiving end was scorched and tossed about inside the heart of the attack, after which he was then sent hurling out of it trailing smoke. Wherever he landed, Kakuzu was sure that he wouldn't be picking himself up for a while.

Cutting off the chakra feed to the attack, Kakuzu retracted his arm and allowed the threads and masks to sink back into him. His limb twisting and shuddering as everything was returned to its rightful places the bounty hunter then flexed his restored fingers before looking across the smoldering crater the size of an Olympic swimming pool, which he'd formed in the ground from the sheer range of his attack.

Even though he aimed the blast upwards, the spread and reach it had was just jaw dropping.

"That takes care of him," Kakuzu muttered, wanting to add a 'for now' to the end of that, but was pretty sure he wouldn't be running into him again anytime soon. He was going to be busy grafting skin back onto his body after having all of it melted off. Business settled, the masked man then focused on the vapor trail he could see fading away in the distance. When it vanished, he calculated the exact position the 'rocket' originated from, and started in that direction, moving with purpose. "The bridge."

Yep. Whatever shit Hidan got himself into, must have been way more than he could handle…

**TO BE CONTINUED…**

* * *

**Author's note:** And that's the fight, everyone. The conclusion… not so good for the good guys and not so good for the bad guys.

Everyone played a part in that battle on the bridge, where they each showed what they were capable of and what their limitations were. Being an S-Ranked shinobi, Hidan is a tough foe, even though he doesn't have much going for him. He has great taijutsu and great dodging where he lacks in speed, and only has one saving grace in his immortality (I should say imperviousness, since he can still die of lack of nutrition and aging). His opponent's overcame this by attacking him continuously and overwhelming him. However, he isn't bright, prone to underestimating his foes, which what led to his defeat and not killing them when he had the chance, and he's very foul mouthed and insulting, like how he was able to rile up Choji in canon. He can really push a person's buttons when he wants to, which he used against all four of his opponents and got Naruto to snap.

The Kyuubi contributed. His anger at Madara and Hidan's words, which reflected what Madara said to him all those years ago, prompted him to play a bigger part in the battle and give Naruto a big boost to beat his unkillable foe to death, or tried to anyway. I thought that was some good teamwork, but this still being the early stages in the relationship, the fox could only do so much. But it does show they have much better chemistry now then in canon. It also showed Naruto losing his composure for the first time; I thought that was a nice touch.

Tayuya has just finished taking care of business, so she's going to see what's up.

Kakuzu got rid of Kimimaro temporarily and is now on his way over.

And Naruto showcased a new ability he'd been practicing his with roommate. _**Hien**_. I was inspired to give this move the same name as Asuma's from Sanada's jab technique from Hajime no Ippo; the tracer attack. One of my favorite moves. Now Naruto can throw his jet hand technique in the form of a blast of wind.

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.

Oh yes, and the Hidan using two blood samples for his voodoo doll trick. I saw in the _Chikara A_rc that Hidan took blood from Shikamaru, Ino and Choji and ingested them at the same time, so my conclusion is that he doesn't need to use just one blood sample. Why else would he have been picked for Akatsuki if he could only kill one person at a time through that ability? He's able to take down multiple foes with it, which was what I saw from how he and Deidara managed to slaughter all those soldiers in the arc.


End file.
